5-year patent prosecution backlog in near future?

Link: USPTO funding is in the news again.  MSNBC is reporting a serious threat of 5-year prosecution backlogs without better funding from Congress.

Unless long-overdue reforms are put in place and the agency’s budget is expanded, the current backlog will balloon further, and the average time it takes to win a patent — now more than two years — will double in five years, according to the acting head of the agency, Jon W. Dudas.