This should be the last week of work for the Congress until after the November elections, as lawmakers must put together a stop-gap budget to keep the government running after the fiscal year ends on Thursday.

If you are keeping score at home, the House has approved two of the 12 budget bills needed to keep the money flowing to federal agencies - the Senate has not considered a single one.  That's why a temporary bill is needed.

So, this temporary budget will keep the government running until mid-November, when the House and Senate are expected to reconvene in a post-election, Lame Duck session.

Last Friday, Speaker Pelosi held open the chance that the House could still take a vote on a plan to extend the Bush tax cuts, but that still seems like a longshot at best.

The House does not have votes until Wednesday.  The Senate has its first vote on Tuesday.

So, you can see, there's not exactly a major rush right now.

The Senate will spend a few days dickering over a Democratic plan that would crack down on tax breaks given to companies that move jobs overseas.

Expect a lot of finger pointing framed around the elections on that one.

The Senate will actually take the first step on the stop-gap budget, known as the Continuing Resolution, or "CR" in Capitol Hill shorthand.

How can they do that, since all revenue and spending bills are to start in the House?

Well, the Senate will take a budget bill from last year that was approved by the House, but never acted on in the Senate, and substitute language into that bill on the stop-gap budget plan.

Pretty nifty legislative maneuver, eh?

That CR debate will likely involve some battling over extra spending that Democrats want added on.  Expect Republicans to oppose that.

A likely departure date for lawmakers is Thursday, when the fiscal year officially ends.  That would be the earliest adjournment for the elections by a Congress since 1960.