Congress Starts the Continuing Resolution Process Earlier Than Ever

Continuing resolutions (CRs) have become a September ritual on Capitol Hill. The pattern rarely varies. Congress spends the summer working on its appropriations bills, falls short, and passes a stopgap in the last days before funding runs out on September 30. This year, lawmakers skipped the suspense. The House passed a CR on July 21 and the Senate on August 8, before either chamber left town for the August recess.

Why Congress Needs Continuing Resolutions

A CR may fund the government - or parts of the government that haven’t received a regular appropriation - for a few days, several months, or an entire year. A “clean” CR extends funding without significantly adjusting program levels and does not include policy language (i.e., riders). A CR may also include so-called anomalies that adjust funding levels significantly or make legislative changes, such as extending expiring authorizations.

Congress uses CRs to keep the government funded when lawmakers fail to complete their annual appropriations work before the end of the fiscal year. They have become a routine part of the annual process. Congress has finished that work on time only once in the last 30 years - for FY1997. In all but two years since then, Congress has approved a CR in September to keep the government open.

So far this year, the House and Senate have not both approved a regular appropriations bill to fund the government after September 30. The House Appropriations Committee has reported all its FY2027 regular appropriations bills. But the full House has passed only three of them - the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (HR 8646), Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (HR 8469), and the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act (HR 8595). The Senate Appropriations Committee has not reported any of its FY2027 regular appropriations bills. The full Senate has also not considered any of its regular appropriations bills on the floor.

Why This Year Is Different

Congress’s failure to complete its annual appropriations work on time, and the fact that it needs a CR to keep the government open after September 30, is not unusual. What is unusual is how early Congress started the CR process this year. Specifically, lawmakers in the House and Senate took the initial step of advancing CRs through their respective chambers before September. 

The Senate passed the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act (HR 6500) on August 8 before leaving Washington for its five-week August recess. HR 6500 would extend government funding through December 11. It also includes policy language (i.e., riders), including a provision delaying implementation of a proposed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rule that would change the approval process for federal grants. The House passed its CR - the Continuing Appropriations Act (HR 9770) - on July 21. HR 9770 would extend government funding through December 4 instead of December 11 and does not include policy riders.

In the fifty fiscal years since the modern budget process began in FY1977, neither chamber had passed an initial CR before September - counting when a chamber voted on legislation containing continuing appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year, not when it passed a bill later used as a vehicle for one. This year, the House acted on July 21, 72 days before the September 30 deadline. The Senate followed on August 8, 54 days before the deadline. 

Before this year, lawmakers waited until September, when only a few days or weeks remained in the fiscal year, to officially acknowledge that they would not complete their annual appropriations work on time and would need a CR to give themselves more time to finish. They would often rely on additional CRs to extend funding again in the months between October and April.

Almost every CR enacted since FY1977 has become law between September and April. The lone exception was a June 1981 measure. But that was not an initial CR for the upcoming fiscal year. It was the third CR for FY1981, extending for the rest of the ongoing fiscal year funding that Congress had first extended the previous October.

The Takeaway

Continuing resolutions aren’t new. They have become a regular feature of Congress’s appropriations process. What is new is how early Congress started the process this year. No chamber had done this in the fifty fiscal years since FY1977. This year both did.