CRs are basically Congress doing the bare minimum: taking the funding levels from the most-recently-passed appropriations bill, and extending them for as long as needed. They can last a few hours, or a few months, or a full year—however long Congress needs in order to reach agreement on appropriations for the rest of the year. But how do we get to that point? The problem is, this rarely happens nowadays. Yes, 20 years ago! Not really. But like almost every household, organization, or business, your government functions best when it can plan for the long term.
Federal agencies generally try to budget several years in advance. This helps ensure, among other things, that agencies can negotiate better deals when they enter into contracts. Instead, lawmakers have come to rely heavily on CRs — temporary, imperfect solutions that avoid the difficult but necessary work of allocating funding.
Lawmakers often enact multiple CRs in a single fiscal year before deciding on full-year funding levels. For fiscal years through , CRs have been enacted. Without annual funding provided through the appropriation process, a government shutdown would occur and such a shutdown could have significant fiscal and economic effects.
Such effects include the disruption of government services and programs, creation of uncertainty about future fiscal policy, and the imposition of unnecessary costs on the economy. By enacting full-year funding bills on time, lawmakers can focus their attention on other important legislative duties and government agencies can operate more efficiently. Alternatively, continuing resolutions may have a longer duration to postpone final action on appropriations decisions until after elections, or through the beginning of the next congressional session.
Finally, a continuing resolution may provide funding for the remainder of the fiscal year. The duration of a continuing resolution refers to the period for which budget authority is provided for covered projects and activities. The period ends either upon enactment of the applicable regular appropriations act or on an expiration date specified in the continuing resolution, whichever occurs first.
Based upon their duration, continuing resolutions may be classified as either interim or full-year measures. Interim or temporary continuing resolutions provide funding for periods usually measured in days or weeks but sometimes months , while full-year continuing resolutions provide funding through September 30, the last day of the fiscal year.
Over the past half century, the timing patterns for congressional action on regular appropriations acts have varied considerably, but tardy enactment has been a recurring problem. During the year period covering FYFY, when the fiscal year began on July 1, at least one regular appropriations bill was enacted after the start of the fiscal year. Continuing resolutions were used in all fiscal years during this period except FY, despite the fact that only one regular appropriations bills was enacted before the start of that fiscal year.
No continuing resolutions were enacted for three of these fiscal years, but continuing resolutions were enacted for FY to fund certain unauthorized programs whose funding had been dropped from the regular appropriations acts.
Full-year continuing resolutions provide funding for one or more of the regular appropriations acts for the remainder of the fiscal year. While Congress has employed full-year continuing resolutions on many occasions, it has not done so consistently over time. For each of the 11 fiscal years covering FYFY, Congress enacted a full-year continuing resolution to provide funding for programs and activities covered by at least one regular appropriations act.
Three years later, Congress enacted another full-year continuing resolution, for FY Most recently, Congress enacted a full-year continuing resolution for FY During the past 15 fiscal years FYFY , Congress provided funding under continuing resolutions for an average of over four months The period for which continuing appropriations were provided in these 15 years ranged from 21 days to days.
On average, each of the 92 continuing resolutions enacted during this period lasted for about 29 Continuing resolutions may have a relatively short duration, based on the expectation that action on the regular appropriations acts will be concluded within several days or weeks.
This report provides information on congressional practices with respect to the duration of continuing resolutions, including the use of full-year measures, and focuses particularly on the period covering FYFY The routine activities of most federal agencies are funded by means of annual appropriations provided in one or more of the regular appropriations acts.
Continuing appropriations acts commonly are referred to as continuing resolutions or CRs because usually they provide continuing appropriations in the form of a joint resolution rather than a bill. Occasionally, however, continuing appropriations are provided in bill form. In most of the years in which continuing resolutions have been used, a series of two or more have been enacted into law. Continuing resolutions may be designated by their order e. The duration of a continuing resolution refers to the period for which budget authority is provided for the covered projects and activities.
The duration of a continuing resolution may vary for different agencies covered thereunder as an agency's regular appropriations act is enacted, and its coverage under the continuing resolution ceases.
For example, Section of P. Unless otherwise provided for in this joint resolution or in the applicable appropriations Act, appropriations and funds made available and authority granted pursuant to this joint resolution shall be available until a enactment into law of an appropriation for any project or activity provided for in this joint resolution, or b the enactment into law of the applicable appropriations Act by both Houses without any provision for such project or activity, or c October 31, , whichever first occurs.
A continuing resolution may also contain an expiration date for one or more agencies or programs that differs from the one that applies generally to the covered agencies and programs. If action on the regular appropriations acts is not complete by the time the first continuing resolution expires, subsequent continuing resolutions will often simply replace the expiration date in the preceding continuing resolution with a new one.
For example, Section 1 of the second continuing resolution for FY, P. By enacting a series of interim continuing resolutions, Congress secures additional increments of time for itself to complete action on some or all of the remaining regular appropriations acts.
The duration of any further continuing resolutions may be shortened, sometimes to a single day, to keep pressure on legislators to conclude their business, or may be lengthened to weeks to accommodate lengthy negotiations or congressional recesses.
In some cases, continuing resolutions have carried over into the next session when Congress wanted to postpone making difficult political or policy decisions. Finally, when the separate enactment of one or more of the regular appropriations bills for a fiscal year does not seem likely to occur, a full-year continuing resolution may be used to complete legislative action. Continuing resolutions usually fund activities under a formula-type approach that provides spending at a restricted level, such as "at a rate for operations not exceeding the current rate," which is generally equivalent to the total amount of appropriations provided for the prior fiscal year.
Exceptions to the formula, sometimes referred to as "anomalies," which provide a specific amount of budget authority for certain accounts or activities, can also be provided. The amount of funding available for particular activities previously provided based on a rate or as an anomaly can be increased or decreased when the relevant regular appropriations act is subsequently enacted. Congress is not bound by these conventions in determining funding levels, however, and there have been several variations in practice over the years in how the funding for projects and activities under a continuing resolution has been provided.
An agency like the Census Bureau, for example, would find a CR very challenging while trying to plan and conduct a decennial census. Administrative burden. A CR imposes tight restrictions on the obligation of funds and there are federal penalties for spending more than authorized under law, so documentation is very important.
For this reason, the administrative burden that accompanies a CR can have a significant impact on agency operations and employee productivity. The purpose of the current CR is to keep the government open and operating past the November elections.
If Democrats retain control of the House, flip the Senate, and secure the White House, there will be considerable pressure within the party to delay action on any full-year funding bill until , when a new administration will be sworn in. Consequently, it is possible that the current CR will not be the last for FY Continuing Resolutions Follow a Common Format A typical continuing resolution will have six main features: A coverage statement that includes, by reference, a list of all the prior appropriation bills for which funding is extended in the CR.
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