Continuing Resolutions ("CRs")
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Maintaining Funding Until Enactment of Full-Year Appropriations
When a new fiscal year begins on October 1st, if Congress has not completed action on the 12 regular appropriations bills—individually, or through “minibus” or “omnibus” packages of bills—stop-gap funding is needed to avoid a shutdown. A stop-gap funding measure is called a continuing resolution (“CR”).
Unlike a budget resolution which is a concurrent resolution of Congress and does not require the President’s signature, a CR is typically enacted as a joint resolution or bill—both of which require presentment to the President and have the force of law.
A CR is an appropriations measure—usually temporary—that gives departments and agencies legal authority to obligate the federal government in the budget year at a specified level, often the prior fiscal year’s funding level.
Congress has enacted CRs in all, but three, of the fiscal years since October 1 was designated the start of the federal fiscal year by the 1974 Budget Act.
Continuing resolutions have a number of key characteristics:
Scope: A CR covers the departments and agencies that have not yet been funded by appropriations acts. A CR can cover all the departments and agencies, if none of the 12 regular appropriations bills have been completed, or a portion of the government if some of the bills have been completed while others are still deadlocked or under negotiation.
Duration: A CR specifies a specific duration of time for funding to continue. This is typically a strategic consideration based upon the current status of negotiations, the election cycle, and the congressional schedule. For example, the first CR for FY 2026 funded the departments and agencies covered by the nine unfinished appropriations bills, from the end of the shutdown (11/12/2025) through January 30, 2026. In some years, full-year CRs may be enacted for particular departments and agencies when negotiators are unable to reach agreement on one or more regular appropriations bills.
Funding Rate: A CR provides funds based on a particular funding rate. In recent fiscal years, CRs have continued funding for departments and agencies in the (upcoming) budget year at the prior fiscal year’s funding level, although in some years, Congress has provided CR funding at rates set forth in a House-passed or Senate-passed funding bill. In those instances, the funding levels of bills that are yet to be passed are incorporated by reference into a CR.
New Activities: A CR may prohibit the stop-gap funding from being used for new activities that were not funded in the previous fiscal year.
Anomalies: CRs typically include exceptions from the general rules above for specific programs, projects, or activities that require special funding levels. These are referred to informally as “anomalies.”
Legislative Provisions: Finally, CRs have sometimes been used as a legislative vehicle for various types of time-sensitive legislative (i.e., non-appropriations) provisions. For example, the first CR for FY 2026, in addition to providing stopgap funding through January 30, 2026, also included various program extensions.
Continuing Resolutions by Fiscal Year:
(click on link, then navigate to “continuing resolutions”)