The United States is again suffering the embarrassment of nearly having a government shutdown. Delays in funding would have caused disruption and uncertainty. But there is no reason we should allow disputes to grind so much of our government operations to a halt.

We have had proposed solutions, such as allowing agencies to incur obligations but not expend funds during a lapse in funding, for almost at long as we’ve had government shutdowns, a result of a disastrous opinion of Benjamin Civiletti, President Jimmy Carter’s attorney general. His opinion that a lapse in funding meant that government agencies had to cease operations reinterpreted the Antideficiency Act to our ongoing detriment. Within a few months, the General Accounting Office (now known as the Government Accountability Office) had proposals to defuse the shutdown time bomb. Despite multiple shutdowns, Congress has not acted on these proposals.