This from Air Force Times: Legislation shielding military pay from the effects of a government shutdown is quickly gaining cosponsors as the clock ticks toward the midnight Friday expiration of federal funding, after which the government would shut down.

In the Senate, 71 cosponsors have signed onto a bill sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that would continue paying the military during a shutdown and would give the Defense Department the discretion to also pay federal civilian workers and defense contractors deployed on contingency operations in support of U.S. troops.

To read the entire story, click here.