Federal departments and agencies receive money through laws passed by Congress and signed by the President. According to the Office of the House Historian, money for all three branches of the federal government comes through the appropriations process, and all federal spending bills originate in the House of Representatives. The Government Accountability Office describes a continuing resolution as a temporary spending bill used when final appropriations have not been approved, and describes a lapse in appropriations, commonly called a government shutdown, as the time after one appropriation has run out and before a new appropriation becomes law.
How regular appropriations are made
The Office of the House Historian says the Committee on Appropriations is responsible for spending bills. In 1865, the House took the appropriations function from the Ways and Means Committee and created the Appropriations Committee. The Historian’s office says the committee divides its work among 12 subcommittees, and that each subcommittee produces a bill funding particular departments and areas of government.
Like any other bill, a spending measure must pass both the House and the Senate and be signed by the President to become law, according to the Office of the House Historian. The Historian’s office says Congress carries out the appropriations process once a year, for each fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. The Government Accountability Office describes the federal budget as a proposal by the President outlining spending goals and priorities for a given year, which Congress debates before voting to appropriate funding.
According to a Government Accountability Office blog posted on Nov. 3, 2022, Congress had completed that process before the start of the fiscal year three times in the previous 47 years, most recently for fiscal year 1997.
What a continuing resolution does
If regular appropriations bills are not signed into law before the new fiscal year, Congress can pass a continuing resolution, which the Office of the House Historian describes as providing temporary funding before regular bills are passed. The Government Accountability Office says a continuing resolution is needed any time Congress and the President do not agree on spending levels and enact regular appropriations by the start of the fiscal year in October. Without final appropriations or a continuing resolution, that office says, funding can lapse and a government shutdown can follow.
The Government Accountability Office says continuing resolutions generally continue the funding level from the prior year’s appropriations or from the previously approved continuing resolution for the current year. A continuing resolution can change the rate at which funds are used, extend an expiring program authority, or provide a specific dollar amount to a program. A full-year continuing resolution provides appropriations for the rest of the fiscal year and is functionally similar to final appropriations, according to that office.
A Government Accountability Office blog posted on Nov. 3, 2022, reported 47 continuing resolutions from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal year 2022. Those measures ranged from one to 176 days, which the blog described as just under six months. On three occasions in that span, in fiscal years 2014, 2018, and 2019, no continuing resolution was approved, and a shutdown resulted, according to the blog.
When a funding gap becomes a shutdown
The Office of the House Historian says parts of the federal government can face a funding lapse when a new fiscal year starts, or a continuing resolution runs out, and Congress has not appropriated new money. The Government Accountability Office says such lapses are most often tied to the close of a fiscal year, when neither a regular appropriation, which usually covers a full fiscal year, nor a continuing resolution that supplies funding for a limited period, has become law. According to that office, a shutdown can reach a handful of agencies or the whole federal government.
The Office of the House Historian says that before the 1980s, funding gaps did not typically have major effects on operations. Agencies often continued to operate during a lapse, expecting that funding would be provided later. In 1980 and 1981, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti wrote legal opinions that the Historian’s office says established the basis for government shutdowns, calling for a stricter reading of the Antideficiency Act. That law, the Historian’s office says, prohibits agencies from authorizing expenditures beyond the amount Congress provided by law.
Beginning with the appropriations process for fiscal year 1982, many later funding gaps resulted in shutdowns of affected agencies, in which day-to-day operations halted and employees were furloughed without pay, according to the Office of the House Historian. The Historian’s office says federal officials later carved out exemptions for employees deemed essential, such as military and law enforcement personnel involved in protecting life and property.
The Office of the House Historian distinguishes full and partial shutdowns. Full shutdowns result from a failure to pass all 12 governmental appropriations bills. All other lapses in funding are considered partial. Its list covers funding gaps of at least one full day and notes whether shutdown procedures were followed, meaning agencies were closed and employees were furloughed. Some gaps after 1980 had limited effects because they were too short or fell over a weekend, so affected agencies did not begin shutdown procedures before funding was restored, according to that office.
From fiscal year 1977 through fiscal year 2019, the Government Accountability Office counted 20 shutdowns with at least one full day without available funding. Those shutdowns ranged from one to 35 days, according to that office.
Which work may continue
The Government Accountability Office says that once a shutdown begins, the Antideficiency Act generally obliges agencies to halt operations. The office says the requirement preserves Congress’s control of federal spending by stopping the executive branch from running without money appropriated by Congress. The act prohibits agencies from incurring obligations or making payments in advance of, or in excess of, an appropriation. During a shutdown, agencies generally cannot pay out money, and that includes pay for employees, and employees cannot provide services without payment except in very limited circumstances, according to that office.
The Government Accountability Office describes a two-step inquiry for whether an activity may continue. First, activities that still have available appropriations may continue. That authority may come from multiyear or no-year appropriation balances carried over, or from other available balances, such as fee income that Congress made available outside the annual process. Social Security benefits, funded through a permanent appropriation, may continue to be paid during a shutdown, according to that office.
Second, if no appropriation is available, the activity may continue only if an exception to the Antideficiency Act applies, the Government Accountability Office says. Agencies may continue activities necessary to protect human life and government property. Congress and the President may also continue work on enacting appropriations that will end the shutdown. Ordinary, ongoing government functions cannot keep going while a shutdown is in effect, according to that office.
The Government Accountability Office issues legal decisions on shutdowns when Congress or a federal agency requests them, and it provides informal technical assistance to Congress and federal agencies. Those decisions have addressed whether particular actions fit the act’s narrow exceptions, whether an agency with available appropriations may continue operating, and whether an available appropriation may be charged for activities not generally chargeable to it.
How stopgap funding can affect agencies
Continuing resolutions keep the government running until the resolution expires or final appropriations are enacted, whichever comes first, according to the Government Accountability Office. In work described in a blog posted on Nov. 3, 2022, officials from the Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and Education told the office that continuing resolutions had produced administrative inefficiencies and limited management options, including in hiring and travel.
Health and Human Services officials told the Government Accountability Office that when a continuing resolution is about to expire without another resolution or a final appropriation, financial and human resources staff must plan for a possible shutdown instead of focusing on regular duties. Agriculture officials said continuing resolutions can slow or stop hiring, and that the department may not extend new hire offers during a continuing resolution. They also reported effects on training. Education officials said travel funds may be inaccessible during a continuing resolution, limiting on-site monitoring during grant-making, and that uncertainty about funding limited planning for what grant recipients might receive.
Education officials told the Government Accountability Office that, during a continuing resolution, the department continues to announce grant opportunities but includes language stating that the actual funding level depends on final congressional action. Officials at the three departments also said they look for funding flexibilities beyond the annual appropriation process. Health and Human Services officials said the unaccompanied children and refugee programs were two of the few programs in the department with multi-year appropriations.