Order Code RL30343
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Continuing Appropriations Acts:
Brief Overview of Recent Practices
Updated October 17, 2006
Sandy Streeter
Analyst in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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Continuing Appropriations Acts:
Brief Overview of Recent Practices
Summary
Most of the operations of federal departments and agencies are funded each year
through the enactment of 11 regular appropriations acts. Since these bills are annual,
expiring at the end of the fiscal year, regular bills for the subsequent fiscal year must
be enacted by October 1. However, final action on several regular appropriations
bills is typically delayed beyond the deadline. When this occurs, the affected
departments and agencies are generally funded under temporary continuing
appropriations acts until the final funding decisions become law. Because continuing
appropriations acts are, for the most part, enacted in the form of joint resolutions,
such acts are referred to as continuing resolutions (or CRs).
CRs generally can be divided into two categories — those that provide interim
(or temporary) funding and those that provide funds through the end of the fiscal
year. Interim continuing resolutions provide funding until a specific date or until the
enactment of the applicable regular appropriations acts. Full-year continuing
resolutions provide continuing appropriations through the end of the fiscal year.
Over the past 35 years, the nature, scope, and duration of continuing resolutions
gradually expanded and, then, generally contracted. From the early 1970s through
1987, CRs gradually expanded from interim funding measures of comparatively brief
duration and length to measures providing funding through the end of the fiscal year.
In many cases, the full-year measures included the full text of several regular
appropriations bills and contained substantive legislation (i.e., provisions under the
jurisdiction of committees other than the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees). Since 1988, CRs have generally been interim funding measures with
little substantive legislation.
Over the years, delay in the enactment of regular appropriations measures and
CRs after the beginning of the fiscal year has led to periods during which
appropriations authority has lapsed. Such periods generally are referred to as funding
gaps.
On September 29, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the FY2007
Department of Defense Appropriations Act (FY2007 Defense Appropriations Act,
P.L. 109-289), which includes the FY2007 continuing resolution. The conference
committee on the appropriations act had previously added the FY2007 continuing
resolution to the conference report. This CR extends funding for the nine outstanding
FY2007 regular appropriations bills generally through November 17, 2006.
Congress and the President have completed action on 2 of the 11 FY2007
regular bills: FY2007 Defense Appropriations Act (P.L. 109-289) and FY2007
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (P.L. 109-295).

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Contents
FY2007 Continuing Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Most Recent Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Selected Provisions of Continuing Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Recent Practices Regarding Continuing Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
History and Recent Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Types of Continuing Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Substantive Legislative Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Funding Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
For Additional Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Congressional Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CRS Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Budget and Appropriations Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
FY2007 Regular Appropriations Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Other Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
List of Tables
Table 1. Action on FY2007 Continuing Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Table 2. Regular Appropriations Bills Enacted by Deadline and Continuing
Resolutions (CRs), FY1977-FY2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

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Continuing Appropriations Acts:
Brief Overview of Recent Practices
Most of the operations of federal departments and agencies are funded each year
through the enactment of 11 regular appropriations acts.1 Since these bills are
annual, expiring at the end of the fiscal year,2 regular bills for the subsequent fiscal
year must be enacted by October 1. However, final action on several regular
appropriations bills is typically delayed beyond the deadline. When this occurs, the
affected departments and agencies are generally funded under temporary continuing
appropriations acts until the final spending decisions become law. Because
continuing appropriations acts are, for the most part, enacted in the form of joint
resolutions, such acts are referred to as continuing resolutions (or CRs).
This report is divided into two segments. The first segment provides the most
recent developments regarding the FY2007 continuing resolution. The second
segment provides information on the history of CRs; the nature, scope, and duration
of CRs during the past 35 years; the types of CRs that have been enacted; and an
overview of those instances when spending has lapsed and a funding gap has
resulted.
FY2007 Continuing Resolution
Most Recent Developments
On September 29, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the FY2007
Department of Defense Appropriations Act (FY2007 Defense Appropriations Act),3
which includes the FY2007 continuing resolution.4 The conference committee on the
appropriations act had previously added the FY2007 continuing resolution to the
conference report.
1 Initially, the House considers 11 regular bills, whereas the Senate considers 12 regular
bills. During congressional consideration of the appropriations bills, the Senate combines
two bills, resulting in 11 enacted measures. The Senate adds the Senate District of
Columbia bill to the Senate Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the
Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. The coverage of this combined bill
corresponds to the House’s Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the
Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill.
2 The fiscal year of the federal government begins on October 1 and ends the following
September 30.
3 P.L. 109-289; 120 Stat. 1257.
4 Division B of P.L. 109-289.

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Congress and the President have completed action on 2 of the 11 FY2007
regular bills: FY2007 Defense Appropriations Act and FY2007 Department of
Homeland Security Appropriations Act.5 Further congressional and presidential
action on the outstanding regular bills will not occur until after Congress returns for
a lame-duck session. (For congressional and presidential action on the FY2007
continuing resolution, see Table 1).
Table 1. Action on FY2007 Continuing Resolution
Committee
Conference Report
Measure
Approval
Approval
House
Senate
Conference
Public
House
Senate
Passage
Passage
Report
House
Senate
Law
H.Rept.
09/26/06
09/29/06
09/29/06
a
a
a
a
H.R. 5631
109-676
394-22
100-0
109-289
a. The continuing resolution was not included in H.R. 5631 as approved by the House or Senate Committees on Appropriations
or as passed by the House or Senate. The conference committee on H.R. 5631 added it to the conference report.
Selected Provisions of Continuing Resolution
The FY2007 continuing resolution generally extends budget authority6 for
accounts7 funded by discretionary or mandatory spending8 through November 17,
5 P.L. 109-295; 120 Stat. 1355.
6 Congress funds federal activities by providing agencies with budget authority, instead of
cash. Budget authority refers to authority provided by law to enter into financial obligations
requiring either immediate or future expenditures (or outlays) of government funds.
Congress may make budget authority for specified activities available for obligation for only
a single fiscal year, specified multi-years, or indefinitely. An appropriation is a type of
budget authority that not only provides authority to make financial obligations for specified
activities, but also provides authority to make payments from the Treasury for those
activities.
7 The basic unit of a regular or supplemental appropriations act is the account. Under these
acts, funding for each department and large independent agency is distributed among several
accounts. Each account, generally, includes similar programs, projects, or items, such as a
“research and development” account or “salaries and expenses” account. For small
agencies, a single account may fund all of the agency’s activities. These acts typically
provide a lump-sum amount for each of these accounts. A few accounts include a single
program, project, or item, which the appropriations acts fund individually.
8 Congress divides budget authority and the resulting outlays into two categories:
discretionary and mandatory (or direct) spending. Discretionary spending is controlled by
annual appropriations acts, which are under the jurisdiction of the House and Senate
Committees on Appropriations. Mandatory spending is controlled by legislative acts under
the jurisdiction of the authorizing committees (principally, the House Committee on Ways
and Means and Senate Committee on Finance). All discretionary spending and some
mandatory spending are included in the annual appropriations measures. For more
information, see CRS Report 97-684, The Congressional Appropriations Process: An
(continued...)

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2006. The CR, however, authorizes mandatory spending payments due on or about
December 1, 2006. The resolution also provides that if the applicable regular
appropriations bill becomes law prior to the expiration date, the continuing
appropriations for accounts associated with the bill will cease upon enactment of the
bill.
The FY2007 CR generally extends budget authority for accounts funded in the
FY2006 regular appropriations acts that would be funded in the outstanding FY2007
regular appropriations bills passed by the House or Senate by October 1, 2006.
Spending is also extended for accounts funded in the FY2006 acts, if (1) only the
House passed the applicable FY2007 regular bill by the deadline and the bill did not
provide spending for the account; or (2) neither chamber passed a FY2007 regular
bill by the deadline. The CR generally prohibits funding for new projects or
activities that were not funded in FY2006.
CRs generally provide spending rates for most of the accounts covered.9 The
FY2007 CR sets different spending rates for (1) discretionary spending, and (2)
mandatory spending as well as the Food Stamp Program. The spending rates
provided for the latter, primarily entitlement programs, are the amounts needed to
maintain current program levels under existing law. This is generally designed to
provide additional funding, if needed, to continue current services for eligible
beneficiaries.
Under the FY2007 resolution, spending rates for discretionary spending are
generally determined by formulas based on the status of the FY2007 regular
appropriations bills, as of October 1, 2006. In instances in which both chambers
passed their versions of a regular appropriations bill by October 1, funding is
continued for each account at the lower of the amounts: (1) provided in the House-
passed version of the bill; (2) provided in the Senate-passed version of the bill; or (3)
generally available in FY2006.10 An account that would be funded by only one
8 (...continued)
Introduction, by Sandy Streeter.
9 By contrast, both regular and supplemental appropriations acts generally provide specific
amounts for individual accounts.
10 Technically, the resolution states the FY2006 amount is at a rate of operations not
exceeding the current rate. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided most
Executive Branch agencies detailed instructions for calculating the net amount of “not
exceeding the current rate” for each account funded in the FY2007 continuing resolution.
OMB directed the agencies to include the full-year amount enacted in the FY2006 regular
appropriations acts, minus any reductions (such as across-the-board reductions) and then
add, if any (1) the amount enacted in FY2006 supplemental appropriations acts for recurring
and ongoing projects and activities, if pre-approved by OMB; (2) the amount transferred to
or from other accounts, if mandated by law; and (3) the discretionary unobligated balance
carried forward to FY2006. Then, subtract from this sum the discretionary unobligated
balance at the end of FY2006, if any.
Once this net annualized amount has been calculated, OMB instructs the agencies to
multiply it by the lower of (1) the percentage of the year covered by the CR; or (2) the
historical seasonal rate of obligations for the period of the year covered by the CR. U.S.
(continued...)

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chamber is protected until the final funding decisions are made in the FY2007 regular
appropriations act. The funding level is not zero, instead funding is continued at the
lower of the amount that would be provided by the chamber or was generally
available in FY2006. Accounts funded in FY2006 that would not be funded by either
chamber for FY2007, however, are not funded.
While none of the outstanding FY2007 regular appropriations bills were passed
by both chambers, certain activities that would be funded in the House-passed
FY2007 Military Construction, Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs
Appropriations bill (FY2007 Military Quality of Life Appropriations bill)11 meet the
standard and are funded under this formula. Both the House-passed FY2007 Military
Quality of Life Appropriations bill and the Senate-passed version of the FY2007
Defense Appropriations Act cover the following Department of Defense activities:
(1) basic allowance for housing activities; (2) facilities sustainment, restoration and
modernization activities; (3) “Environmental Restoration” accounts; and (4)
“Defense Health Program Account.” Final FY2007 funding levels for these activities
are expected to be provided in the enacted FY2007 Military Quality of Life regular
appropriations bill.
The continuing resolution provides a separate formula for instances in which
only the House passed a FY2007 regular appropriations bill by October 1. Funding
is continued at the lower of the amount that would be provided in the House-passed
bill or was generally available in FY2006. If the House-passed bill would not
continue FY2006 funding for an account, the account is protected. It is funded at the
FY2006 level.
Eight of the nine outstanding FY2007 regular appropriations bills are funded
under this formula, specifically the FY2007: (1) Agriculture, Rural Development,
Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (H.R.
5384); (2) Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill (H.R. 5427); (3)
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations bill
(H.R. 5522); (4) Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
Appropriations bill (H.R. 5386); (5) Legislative Branch Appropriations bill (H.R.
5521); (6) remaining portions of the Military Quality of Life Appropriations bill; (7)
Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (H.R.
5672); and (8) Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the
Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill
(H.R. 5576).
10 (...continued)
Office of Management and Budget, Apportionment of the Continuing Resolution(s) for
Fiscal Year 2007, Bulletin No. 06-04 (Washington: Sept. 2006), Attachment, p. 1.
Unobligated balance refers to the cumulative amount of budget authority that is not
obligated and that, under law, remains available for obligation. For example, if Congress
had provided an appropriation to an account of $2 million for the FY2006-FY2007 period
and, by the end of FY2006, the agency had only obligated $1.5 million; the remaining $0.5
million would be an unobligated balance.
11 109th Congress, H.R. 5385.

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A separate spending rate is provided for the only regular bill that neither
chamber passed by October 1, FY2007 Departments of Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (H.R. 5647, S.
3708). Funding is continued at the FY2006 level.
The FY2007 continuing resolution makes funding available under terms and
conditions provided in the applicable FY2006 regular appropriations acts. For
example, a provision in an FY2006 regular appropriations act prohibiting the use of
funds in an account for a specified activity or project may be in effect.
Recent Practices Regarding
Continuing Resolutions
Background
Under the Constitution and federal law, no funds may be drawn from the U.S.
Treasury or obligated by federal officials unless appropriated by law.12 Traditionally,
most of the operations of federal departments and agencies are funded each year
through separate enactment of several regular, annual appropriations acts.13 Because
these measures expire at the end of the fiscal year, the regular appropriations bills for
the subsequent fiscal year must be enacted by October 1. However, final action on
one or more regular appropriations bills is typically delayed beyond the deadline (for
data on the FY1977-FY2006 period, see Table 2). When this occurs, the affected
departments and agencies are generally funded under temporary continuing
appropriations acts until the final funding decisions are enacted. Because continuing
appropriations acts typically are enacted in the form of joint resolutions, such acts are
referred to as continuing resolutions (or CRs).
History and Recent Trends
Continuing resolutions date from at least the late 1870s, and have been a regular
part of the annual appropriations process for over 50 years. In fact, with the exception
of three fiscal years, at least one continuing resolution has been enacted for each
fiscal year since FY1954.14 (Although all 13 FY1977 regular appropriations bills
12 Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, and 31 U.S.C. 1341. A major exception to this
concept is contract authority. Congress enacts legislation providing an agency with
authority to make obligations (budget authority). After the obligations are made, Congress
provides the appropriations providing the authority to make the payments in another law
(appropriations). Such appropriations are not considered budget authority.
13 For almost 40 years (FY1968-FY2005), Congress considered 13 regular appropriations
bills each year. Beginning with FY2006, the number of bills considered was reduced due
to separate reorganizations of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Now, the
House initially considers 11 regular bills and the Senate 12 bills.
14 The three exceptions were FY1989, FY1995, and FY1997. In the first two instances, all
13 regular appropriations bills were enacted individually on or by the deadline. In the last
(continued...)

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became law on or by the deadline, two CRs were enacted. These CRs generally
provided funding for certain unauthorized activities that had not been included in the
regular appropriations acts.) From FY1978 through FY2006, Congress enacted on
average five continuing resolutions per year (for detailed information, see Table 2).
During the past 35 years, the nature, scope, and duration of continuing
resolutions expanded and, then, generally contracted. From the early 1970s through
1987, continuing resolutions gradually expanded from interim funding measures of
comparatively brief duration and length to measures providing funding through the
end of the fiscal year (referred to as full-year continuing resolutions). In many cases,
the full-year measures included the full text of several regular appropriations bills
and contained substantive legislation (i.e., provisions under the jurisdiction of
committees other than the House and Senate Appropriations Committees). From
1988 through 2005, the continuing resolutions generally contracted into interim
funding measures that did not include the full text of the bills or much substantive
legislation.
Until the early 1970s, continuing resolutions principally were limited in scope
and duration, and rarely exceeded a page or two in length. They were used almost
exclusively to provide interim funding at a minimum, formulaic level, and contained
few provisions unrelated to the interim funding.
Beginning in the early 1970s, conflict between the President and Congress over
major budget priorities, triggered in part by rapidly increasing deficits, greatly
increased the difficulty of reaching final agreement on regular appropriations acts.
This conflict led to protracted delay in their enactment. Continuing resolutions,
because they historically have been viewed as “must-pass” measures in view of the
constitutional and statutory imperatives, became a major battleground for the
resolution of budgetary and other conflicts. Consequently, the nature, scope, and
duration of continuing resolutions began to change.
Continuing resolutions began to be used to provide funds for longer periods, and
occasionally for an entire fiscal year, when agreement on one or more regular acts
could not be reached. Further, continuing resolutions became vehicles for
substantive legislative provisions unrelated to interim funding, as it became clear that
in some years continuing resolutions would be the most effective means to enact such
provisions into law. These trends culminated in FY1987 and FY1988, following a
period of persistently high deficits and sustained conflict over how to deal with them.
For those two years, continuing resolutions effectively became omnibus
appropriations measures for the federal government, incorporating all of the regular
appropriations acts for the entire fiscal year as well as a host of substantive
legislation covering a broad range of policy areas (see P.L. 99-591 and P.L. 100-202).
From FY1988 through FY1995, Congress and the President generally operated
under multi-year deficit reduction agreements achieved through budget summits. For
14 (...continued)
instance, the deadline was met by adding five regular bills to a sixth bill, forming an
omnibus appropriations act, and enacting seven bills individually.

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the FY1991-FY1995 period, an enforcement mechanism (referred to as
sequestration)15 was established. From FY1988 through FY1995, there was a period
of relative agreement on overall budget priorities and, therefore, agreements on
regular appropriations acts came more readily. Continuing resolutions, when
necessary, generally were more limited, contained far less substantive legislation, and
were used mainly to provide interim funding for relatively brief periods.
Although the multi-year agreements and enforcement mechanisms remained in
effect from FY1996 through FY2002, conflict within Congress and between
Congress and the President on funding and policy issues generally delayed action on
regular appropriations bills. In particular, there were significant conflicts between
the Democratic President and Republican Congress from FY1996 through FY2001.
Instead of resolving these differences in expanded continuing resolutions,
Congress and the Administration generally resolved them in omnibus regular
appropriations bills (or in separate appropriations bills). Omnibus regular
appropriations bills were generally developed by attaching outstanding regular
appropriations bills and substantive legislation to another regular appropriations bill
in conference. During this period, continuing resolutions, when needed, provided
interim funding for short periods of time and included little substantive legislation.
This practice has continued through FY2005.
15 The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-508) established spending ceilings for
each fiscal year (FY1991-FY1995) for funding provided in appropriations measures and
controlled by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees (referred to as discretionary
spending). If appropriations measures were enacted that in total exceeded the spending
ceilings, the act provided for an automatic across-the-board reduction in discretionary
spending to eliminate the additional spending (referred to as sequestration).

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CRS-8
Table 2. Regular Appropriations Bills Enacted by Deadline and
Continuing Resolutions (CRs), FY1977-FY2006
Party in Control
Regular
of Congress
Appropriations Bills
Approved by
Presidential
or on
Enacted in
CRs
FY
Administration
Senate
House
October 1
CRs
Enacted
1977
Gerald Ford
Democrats
Democrats
13
0
(2a)
1978
Jimmy Carter
Democrats
Democrats
9
1
3
1979
5
1
1
1980
3
3
2
1981
1
5
2
1982
Ronald Reagan
Republicans
Democrats
0
4
4
1983
1
7
2
1984
4
3
2
1985
4
8
5
1986
0
7
5
1987
0
13
5
1988
Democrats
0
13
5
1989
13
0
0
1990
George H.W. Bush
Democrats
Democrats
1
0
3
1991
0
0
5
1992
3
1
4
1993
1
0
1
1994
William Clinton
Democrats
Democrats
2
0
3
1995
13
0
0
1996
Republicans Republicans
0
0b
13
1997
(13)c
0
0
1998
1
0
6
1999
1
0
6
2000
4
0
7
2001
2
0
21
2002
George W. Bush
Democratsd Republicans 0
0
8
2003
Republicanse
0
0f
8
2004
3
0
5
2005
1
0
3
2006
2
0
3
Sources: U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Appropriations, Budget Estimates,
Etc., 94th Congress, 2nd session - 104th Congress, 1st session (Washington: GPO, 1976-1995). U.S.
Congress, House, Calendars of the U.S. House of Representatives and History of Legislation, 104th
Congress, 1st session - 108th Congress, 2nd session (Washington: GPO, 1995-2004).
a. Although all 13 FY1977 regular appropriations bills became law on or by the deadline, two CRs
were enacted. These CRs generally provided funding for certain unauthorized activities that had
not been included in the regular appropriations acts.
b. An FY1996 continuing resolution (P.L. 104-99) provided full-year funding for the FY1996 foreign
operations regular bill; however, the continuing resolution provided that the foreign operations
measure be enacted separately (P.L. 104-107). It is excluded from the amount.
c. The deadline was met by adding five regular bills to a sixth regular bill, forming an omnibus
appropriations act, and enacting seven bills individually.
d. On June 6, 2001, the Democrats became the majority in the Senate. By that time, the Senate
Appropriations Committee had not reported any FY2002 regular appropriations measures.
e. The Democrats were the majority in the Senate in 2002, during initial consideration of the 13
FY2003 regular appropriations bills and final action on two of the regular bills. The
Republicans were the majority in 2003, during which final action on the remaining 11 FY2003
regular bills occurred.
f. One measure (P.L. 108-7) originated as a continuing resolution, but in conference it was converted
into an omnibus appropriations resolution.

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The change in the type of vehicle for omnibus appropriations measures from
full-year continuing resolutions to regular appropriations bills was due, in part, to
avoid floor amendments to regular appropriations bills and expedite completion of
the regular bills. In the House and Senate, conference reports are not amendable.
Some regular bills either were not considered on the House or Senate floors or were
pulled before floor action was completed, thereby preventing action on certain floor
amendments. By attaching these measures to a conference report to another regular
bill, action on the amendments was avoided. An example of using an omnibus
appropriations measure to expedite consideration occurred during consideration of
the FY1997 regular appropriations bills. To ensure all the FY1997 regular
appropriations bills became law by the October 1 deadline, five FY1997 regular bills
were attached to a sixth FY1997 regular bill in conference. This action obviated the
need for a continuing resolution.
Types of Continuing Resolutions
Continuing resolutions generally can be divided into two categories — interim
and full-year continuing resolutions.16
Interim (or partial) continuing resolutions provide temporary funding until a
specific date or until the enactment of the applicable regular appropriations acts, if
earlier. Since FY1988, they have remained fairly constant in form and structure.
They have typically set formulas or rates to calculate the funding level for each
account (and/or activities, project(s), or program(s) with each account). The initial
FY2006 continuing resolution (P.L. 109-77), for example, generally provided two
formulas. In the case of FY2006 regular bills passed by both the House and Senate
as of October 1st, the amount for each account was the lower of the House-passed bill
amount, Senate-passed bill amount, or the FY2005 spending level. For those bills
that the Senate did not pass as of October 1st, the amount for each account was the
lower of the House-passed amount or the FY2005 spending level The initial FY2002
continuing resolution (P.L. 107-44) provided a rate: the previous year’s amount.
In most cases, the funding rate or formula have applied to all or almost all the
activities covered by a particular regular appropriations act. However, such funding
methods also have been used to fund specific programs that were not covered by
regular appropriations acts because they were not yet authorized by law or for other
reasons (for example, Section 101 of P.L. 94-473).
Once a temporary continuing resolution is enacted, additional interim
resolutions, if necessary, are enacted to extend the deadline. These subsequent
continuing resolutions sometimes change the funding methods.
Full-year continuing resolutions provide continuing appropriations through the
end of the fiscal year. (Table 1 provides the number of regular bills funded through
the end of the fiscal year in continuing resolutions.) Full-year funding provisions
have generally been of two types: (1) full text of the regular act; and (2) language
16 For more information, see CRS Report RL32614, Duration of Continuing Resolutions in
Recent Years, by Robert Keith.

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that incorporates regular acts by reference to the latest stage of congressional action
(usually the conference agreement, if one has been reached).
Full-year continuing resolutions effectively become regular appropriations acts
for the fiscal year. Further, when continuing resolutions have included the full text
of one or more regular appropriations acts, they also have included all the myriad
general and administrative provisions (so-called riders) typically included in regular
acts (see, for example, Section 101 of P.L. 100-202 and Section 101 of P.L. 99-591).
Consequently, they may be hundreds of pages in length, whereas interim resolutions
typically are a few pages or less (in the case of a simple extension of a previous
resolution, perhaps less than half a page).
Since FY1977, Congress has included across-the-board spending reductions in
a few full-year and interim continuing resolutions. The continuing resolutions
generally provided a specific percentage reduction for activities in the specified
regular appropriations bills. The FY1992 full-year continuing resolution (P.L. 102-
266), for example, required a 1.5% spending reduction in discretionary spending
activities in the only outstanding FY1992 regular appropriations bill. Another
example is the FY1982 interim continuing resolution (P.L. 97-92), that included a
4% across-the-board reduction, with certain exceptions, for specified FY1982 regular
appropriations bills. A subsequent FY1982 full-year continuing resolution extended
this provision through the end of the fiscal year.
During consideration of the FY1996 continuing resolutions, Congress also used
a another type of continuing resolution: targeted appropriations. A single
continuing resolution traditionally provides funding for all activities in the
outstanding regular appropriations and generally provides the same expiration date
for all these bills. In January 1996, Congress separated activities from the six
outstanding regular bills and distributed them among three FY1996 continuing
resolutions (P.L. 104-91, P.L. 104-92, and P.L. 104-94). Some of the activities were
full-year funded, while others were temporarily funded.
Substantive Legislative Provisions
Substantive legislative provisions (i.e., provisions under the jurisdiction of
committees other than the House and Senate Appropriations Committees) covering
a wide range of subjects also have been included in some continuing resolutions.
Continuing resolutions are attractive vehicles for such provisions because they are
considered must-pass legislation on which the President and Congress eventually
must reach agreement. Such provisions have been included both in interim and full-
year continuing resolutions.
House Rules XXI, Clause 2, and XXII, Clause 5, prohibit legislative provisions
or unauthorized appropriations17 in general appropriations measures, but these
17 Unauthorized appropriations are funds in an appropriations measure for agencies or
programs whose authorization has expired or was never granted, or whose budget authority
exceeds the ceiling authorized (for more information, see CRS Report 97-684, The
(continued...)

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restrictions do not apply to continuing resolutions. (The House typically adopts
special rules restricting amendments to continuing resolutions, in part for this
reason.) Comparable Senate restrictions, in Senate Rule XVI, on legislative
provisions and unauthorized appropriations do apply in the case of continuing
resolutions.
Substantive provisions in continuing resolutions have included comprehensive
measures that establish major new policies and amend permanent provisions of law,
such as omnibus crime control legislation (in FY1985). They have also included
narrower provisions focused on temporary or one-time problems, such as providing
a temporary extension of statutory authority to pay for travel and transportation
benefits for family members of military personnel injured during operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan (in FY2005). These provisions vary in length from less than one
page to more than 200 pages (in the case, for example, of the Comprehensive Crime
Control Act of 1984).
Funding Gaps
Over the years, delay in the enactment of regular appropriations measures and
continuing resolutions after the beginning of the fiscal year has led to periods during
which appropriations authority has lapsed. Such periods generally are referred to as
funding gaps. Depending on the number of regular appropriations that have yet to
be enacted, a funding gap can affect either a few departments or agencies or most of
the federal government.
Funding gaps are not a recent phenomenon. In fact, by the 1960s and 1970s,
delay in the enactment of appropriation acts, including continuing resolutions,
beyond the beginning of the fiscal year had become almost routine. Notably,
according to a 1981 GAO report, “most Federal managers continued to operate
during periods of funding gaps while minimizing all nonessential operations and
obligations, believing that Congress did not intend that agencies close down while
the appropriations measures were being passed.”18
On April 25, 1980, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti issued a formal opinion
which stated in general that maintaining nonessential operations in the absence of
appropriations was not permitted under the Antideficiency Act (31 U.S.C. 1341), and
that the Justice Department would enforce the criminal sanctions provided for under
the act against future violations.19
17 (...continued)
Congressional Appropriations Process: An Introduction, by Sandy Streeter).
18 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Funding Gaps Jeopardize Federal Government
Operations, GAO/PAD-81-31, Mar. 3, 1981, p. i.
19 U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, Memorandum to the
President, Apr. 25, 1980, reprinted in Funding Gaps Jeopardize Federal Government
Operations, App. IV, pp. 63-67.

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In another opinion issued on January 16, 1981, the Attorney General outlined
the activities that could be continued by federal agencies during a funding gap.
Under that opinion, the only excepted activities include (1) those involving the
orderly termination of agency functions; (2) emergencies involving the safety of
human life or the protection of property; or (3) activities authorized by law.20
Activities authorized by law, for example, include funding for entitlement programs,
such as Social Security and Medicare, that are permanently appropriated. In 1990,
the Antideficiency Act was amended to clarify that “the term ‘emergencies involving
the safety of human life or the protection of property’ does not include ongoing,
regular functions of government the suspension of which would not imminently
threaten the safety of human life or the protection of property.”21
Since 1981, whenever delay in the appropriations process has led to periods of
lapsed appropriations, federal agencies and departments lacking appropriations
generally have shut down all nonessential operations and furloughed nonessential
employees (although provisions of law have been enacted to ratify obligations and
pay employees retroactively). During late 1995 and early 1996, there were two
funding gaps — one lasting 21 days and the other lasting six (including weekends).
From 1981 through 1994, there were nine funding gaps, varying in duration from
only one to three days, some of which occurred over weekends. Most of these gaps
occurred after the beginning of the fiscal year, meaning that they were not caused
because of a failure to enact an initial continuing resolution, but because of delay in
enacting a further extension.
On August 16, 1995, Assistant Attorney General Walter Dellinger, in a
memorandum for the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
stated that “the 1981 Opinion continues to be a sound analysis of the legal authorities
respecting government operations when Congress has failed to enact regular
appropriations bills or a continuing resolution to cover a hiatus between regular
appropriations.”22 The 1990 amendment, he maintained, basically served to confirm
the appropriateness of the 1981 opinion.
20 For additional information on the 1981 opinion of the Attorney General, and on the
excepted activities outlined in that opinion, see U.S. General Accounting Office, Principles
of Federal Appropriations Law: Vol. II, GAO/OGC-92-13, Dec. 1992, pp. 6-92 — 6-99.
21 P.L. 101-508 Section 13213(b), 31 U.S.C. 1342.
22 U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, Government Operations in the Event
of a Lapse in Appropriations, Memorandum for Alice Rivlin, Director, Office of
Management and Budget, Aug. 16, 1995.

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For Additional Reading
Congressional Document
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Budget. The Whole and the Parts:
Piecemeal and Integrated Approaches to Congressional Budgeting. Committee
print, prepared for the Task Force on the Budget Process by Allen Schick, 100th
Congress, 1st session. CP-3. Washington: GPO, 1987.
CRS Reports
Budget and Appropriations Process.
CRS Report 97-947, The Appropriations Process and the Congressional Budget Act,
by James V. Saturno.
CRS Report 97-684, The Congressional Appropriations Process: An Introduction,
by Sandy Streeter.
CRS Report RS20095, The Congressional Budget Process: A Brief Overview, by
James V. Saturno.
CRS Report RL32614, Duration of Continuing Resolutions in Recent Years, by
Robert Keith.
CRS Report RL30619, Examples of Legislative Provisions in Omnibus
Appropriations Acts, by Robert Keith.
CRS Report RS20348, Federal Funding Gaps: A Brief Overview, by Robert Keith.
CRS Report 98-721, Introduction to the Federal Budget Process, by Robert Keith.
CRS Report 97-865, Points of Order in the Congressional Budget Process, by James
V. Saturno.
CRS Report RL30339, Preventing Federal Government Shutdowns: Proposals for
an Automatic Continuing Resolution, by Robert Keith.
FY2007 Regular Appropriations Bills.
CRS Report RL33412, Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2007 Appropriations,
by Jim Monke, Coordinator.
CRS Report RL33405, Defense: FY2007 Authorization and Appropriations, by
Stephen Daggett.
CRS Report RL33563, District of Columbia: Appropriations for 2007, by Eugene
Boyd and David P. Smole.

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CRS-14
CRS Report RL33346, Energy and Water Development: FY2007 Appropriations, by
Carl E. Behrens, Coordinator.
CRS Report RL33420, Foreign Operations (House)/State, Foreign Operations, and
Related Programs (Senate): FY2007 Appropriations, by Larry Nowels, Connie
Veillette, and Susan B. Epstein.
CRS Report RL33428, Homeland Security Department: FY2007 Appropriations, by
Jennifer E. Lake and Blas Nunez-Neto, Coordinators.
CRS Report RL33399, Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2007
Appropriations, by Carol Hardy Vincent and Susan Boren, Coordinators.
CRS Report RL33576, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2007
Appropriations, by Paul M. Irwin.
CRS Report RL33379, Legislative Branch: FY2007 Appropriations, by Paul E.
Dwyer and Ida A. Brudnick.
CRS Report RL33427, Military Construction, Military Quality of Life and Veterans
Affairs: FY2007 Appropriations, by Daniel H. Else, Paul J. Graney, and Sidath
Viranga Panangala.
CRS Report RL33470, Science, State, Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies
(House)/ Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (Senate): FY2007
Appropriations, by Susan B. Epstein and M. Angeles Villarreal, Coordinators.
CRS Report RL33551, Transportation, the Treasury, Housing and Urban
Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, the Executive Office of
the President, and Independent Agencies (TTHUD): FY2007 Appropriations,
by David Randall Peterman and John Frittelli, Coordinators.
Other Sources
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Funding Gaps Jeopardize Federal
Government Operations. GAO/PAD-81-31. March 3, 1981.
——. Principles of Federal Appropriations Law: Vol. II, 2nd ed. GAO/OGC-92-13.
December1992, chap. 8, “Continuing Resolutions.”
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