Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, has urged lawmakers to patch up an agreement on the defense budget by Thanksgiving to avoid another shutdown, Military Times reported Tuesday.

Rick Maze writes that according to Mikulski, failure by the House and Senate to resolve negotiations by Dec. 15 could mean another round of furloughs that could affect some 650,000 DoD personnel by Jan. 15.

Hammering out a deal well ahead of the deadline will provide more time to write funding bills to keep the government open before the temporary funding expires early next year.

“This is a dangerous time in the world, with numerous threats to our security,” she said. “We cannot operate our military on the cheap.”