Summer Action on Continuing Resolutions Is Extraordinary
Congress started the continuing resolution (CR) process earlier this year than at any point in the modern budget era. The House passed the FY2027 Continuing Appropriations Act (HR 9770) on July 21. The Senate passed its CR - the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act (HR 6500) on August 8. Each chamber acted in a month in which it had never taken up a CR before.
September is the Norm
Congress follows a familiar pattern when it funds the government. The House and Senate spend the spring and summer working through the twelve regular appropriations bills. But Congress falls short before funding expires at the end of the fiscal year on September 30. It then passes a CR to keep the government open while lawmakers finish work on the regular appropriations bills.
The timing is remarkably consistent. Since FY1977 - the first fiscal year to begin on October 1 - the House and Senate have overwhelmingly waited until September or later to take initial action on a CR.
The bars before September are not early action. They are mid-year extensions - CRs taken up after a fiscal year had already begun, to again extend funding that was about to lapse.
Of the 236 CRs the House has acted on, 194 - 82 percent - received initial action between September and December. (The House did not consider the other two CRs.)
The Senate’s initial consideration of CRs is even more concentrated at the end of the year: 177 of its 212 initial actions - or 83.5 percent - occurred in those four months. (The Senate did not consider the other 26 CRs.)
The Takeaway
That makes what happened this year extraordinary. The House passed the FY2027 Continuing Appropriations Act (HR 9770) on July 21, and the Senate followed on August 8 with the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act (HR 6500). Both are the only CRs since FY1977 to extend funding into the next fiscal year without waiting until September. Every other one — 47 in the House, 43 in the Senate — was taken up that month.