Continuing Resolutions (CRs)

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 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—which requires presentment to the President and has the force of law.[1]

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 current year 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.[2]

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 2023 funded the departments and agencies from October 1, 2022 through December 16, 2022.[3] 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 budget year at the current year 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.”[4]
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 2023, in addition to providing stopgap funding for 10 weeks, also included various health and human services and veterans’ affairs program extensions.[5]

FY 2024 Continuing Resolutions:

CR #1 – through 11/17	9/30: HR 5860 passed under suspension	9/30: HR 5860 passed 88-9	Senate passed House bill	Signed 9/30/23
CR #2 – through 1/19 and 2/2	11/14: HR 6363 passed under suspension	11/15: HR 6363 passed 87-11	Senate passed House bill.	Signed 11/17/23
CR #3 – through 3/1 and 3/8	01/18: HR 2872 passed 314-108	01/18: HR 2872 passed 77-18; Text and Summ	House passed Senate amendment to HR 2872	Signed 01/19
CR #4 – through 3/8 and 3/22	02/29: HR 7463 passed 320-99	02/29: HR 7463 passed 77-13	Senate passed House bill	Signed 3/1 PL 118-42

Continuing Resolutions by Fiscal Year:
(click on link, then navigate to “continuing resolutions”)

[1] The difference between the two types of resolutions lies in their legal effect. A concurrent resolution is a legislative instrument used by Congress to govern its own internal operations, while a joint resolution intended for presentment to the President has the same legal effect as a bill. However, in certain cases, joint resolutions are not intended for presentment to the President and therefore do not have the force of law.

[2] Cong. Rsch. Serv., R46595, Continuing Resolutions: Overview of Components and Practices, Summary Page (2020), https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46595.

[3] Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023, Pub. L. No. 117-180, 136 Stat. 2114 (2022).

[4] Kate McClanahan, Cong. Rsch. Serv., R42647, Continuing Resolutions: Overview of Components and Practices, 7 (2019).

[5] Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023, Pub. L. No. 117-180, 136 Stat. 2114 (2022).