{ "id": "RL34597", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RL34597", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 581021, "date": "2018-05-10", "retrieved": "2018-05-22T13:21:18.962952", "title": "The Enactment of Appropriations Measures During Lame Duck Sessions", "summary": "Eleven of the past 12 Congresses, covering the 103rd Congress through the 114th Congress, have concluded with a lame duck session. (No such session occurred in 1996, during the 104th Congress.) Under contemporary conditions, any meeting of Congress that occurs between a congressional election in November and the following January 3 is a lame duck session. The significant characteristic of a lame duck session is that its participants are the sitting Members of the existing Congress, not those who will be entitled to sit in the new Congress.\nThe enactment of appropriations measures has been an element of most of these lame duck sessions. Although no regular or continuing appropriations measures were enacted during lame duck sessions held in 1994, 1998, 2008, and 2012, a total of 25 regular and 18 continuing appropriations measures were enacted during the 7 other lame duck sessions held in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2016.\nAlthough some (and occasionally all) of the regular appropriations bills for a fiscal year may be enacted before it begins, in recent decades it has been common for at least some of the regular appropriations bills to be enacted after the start of the fiscal year. In the past, this has triggered the necessity for continuing resolutions (CRs) to extend spending authority until the annual appropriations acts have been enacted and led to the consideration of regular appropriations legislation during the last quarter of the calendar year or even during the following session.\nA lame duck session occurs during the period following Election Day\u2014which is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each even-numbered year\u2014and before the convening of a new Congress about two months later in early January. Several factors may contribute to the occurrence of lame duck sessions, including the need to deal with unfinished appropriations or other budgetary matters.\nThis report provides information on the enactment of annual appropriations acts in the years that lame duck sessions occurred between 1994 and 2016 (FY1995, FY1999, FY2001, FY2003, FY2005, FY2007, FY2009, FY2011, FY2013, FY2015, and FY2017). Lame duck sessions have in some instances afforded Congress an opportunity to complete action on regular appropriations for a fiscal year. In other instances, lame duck sessions played little or no role in this regard, as action on regular appropriations was completed well before or after a lame duck session. In total, 46 of the 136 regular appropriations acts during this period were enacted before the beginning of the applicable lame duck session, 25 were enacted during a lame duck session, and 65 were enacted afterward.\nContinuing appropriations measures were also an important element in some, but not all, of the lame duck sessions that occurred between calendar years 1994 and 2016. In total, 32 of the 61 CRs were enacted before the beginning of the applicable lame duck session, 18 were enacted during the lame duck session, and 11 were enacted afterward. \nThe report will be updated as developments warrant.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL34597", "sha1": "50e566d6ca9c6307432c65d955e459eecdd71e85", "filename": "files/20180510_RL34597_50e566d6ca9c6307432c65d955e459eecdd71e85.html", "images": {} }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL34597", "sha1": "06fb81104b78908dbbd3770b235c00771d847f4f", "filename": "files/20180510_RL34597_06fb81104b78908dbbd3770b235c00771d847f4f.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4900, "name": "Budget & Appropriations Procedure" } ] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 447701, "date": "2015-12-02", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T17:49:00.857917", "title": "The Enactment of Appropriations Measures During Lame Duck Sessions", "summary": "Ten of the past 11 Congresses, covering the 103rd Congress through the 113th Congress, have concluded with a lame duck session. (No such session occurred in 1996, during the 104th Congress.) Under contemporary conditions, any meeting of Congress that occurs between a congressional election in November and the following January 3 is a lame duck session. The significant characteristic of a lame duck session is that its participants are the sitting Members of the existing Congress, not those who will be entitled to sit in the new Congress.\nThe enactment of appropriations measures has been an element of most of these lame duck sessions. Although no regular or continuing appropriations measures were enacted during lame duck sessions held in 1994, 1998, 2008, and 2012, a total of 25 regular and 17 continuing appropriations measures were enacted during the six other lame duck sessions held in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, and 2014.\nAlthough some (and occasionally all) of the regular appropriations bills for a fiscal year may be enacted before it begins, in recent decades it has been common for at least some of the regular appropriations bills to be enacted after the start of the fiscal year. In the past, this has triggered the necessity for continuing resolutions (CRs) to extend spending authority until the annual appropriations acts have been enacted and led to the consideration of regular appropriations legislation during the last quarter of the calendar year or even during the following session.\nA lame duck session occurs during the period following Election Day\u2014which is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each even-numbered year\u2014and before the convening of a new Congress about two months later in early January. Several factors may contribute to the occurrence of lame duck sessions, including the need to deal with unfinished appropriations or other budgetary matters.\nThis report provides information on the enactment of annual appropriations acts in the years that lame duck sessions occurred between 1994 and 2014 (FY1995, FY1999, FY2001, FY2003, FY2005, FY2007, FY2009, FY2011, FY2013, and FY2015). Between calendar years 1994 and 2012, lame duck sessions have in some instances afforded Congress an opportunity to complete action on regular appropriations for a fiscal year. In other instances, lame duck sessions played little or no role in this regard, as action on regular appropriations was completed well before or after a lame duck session. In total, 45 of the 124 regular appropriations acts during this period were enacted before the beginning of the applicable lame duck session, 25 were enacted during a lame duck session, and 54 were enacted afterward.\nContinuing appropriations measures were also an important element in some, but not all, of the lame duck sessions that occurred between calendar years 1994 and 2014. In total, 31 of the 58 CRs were enacted before the beginning of the applicable lame duck session, 17 were enacted during the lame duck session, and 10 were enacted afterward. \nThe report will be updated as developments warrant.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL34597", "sha1": "1849f56f3252f21bdf0dc3ba65a7ad7a02e3ca06", "filename": "files/20151202_RL34597_1849f56f3252f21bdf0dc3ba65a7ad7a02e3ca06.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL34597", "sha1": "4c763388fbb254c83d6949dd423ffa1275efc18d", "filename": "files/20151202_RL34597_4c763388fbb254c83d6949dd423ffa1275efc18d.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 615, "name": "Appropriations Jurisdictions and Processes" }, { "source": "CongOpsList", "id": 4149, "name": "Appropriations Process" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc811660/", "id": "RL34597_2010Aug25", "date": "2010-08-25", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Annual Appropriations Acts: Consideration During Lame-Duck Sessions", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20100825_RL34597_20950b0821da6529a460bc33b0767b72929d6801.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20100825_RL34597_20950b0821da6529a460bc33b0767b72929d6801.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc743432/", "id": "RL34597_2008Jul25", "date": "2008-07-25", "retrieved": "2015-10-20T21:35:54", "title": "Annual Appropriations Acts: Consideration During Lame-Duck Sessions", "summary": "This report provides information on the consideration of annual appropriations acts in connection with lame-duck sessions occurring between 1994 and 2006 as background for the possibility of such a session during 2008.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20080725_RL34597_1102156c4c3f0452978944c77d8ba8d289e63844.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20080725_RL34597_1102156c4c3f0452978944c77d8ba8d289e63844.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Congress", "name": "Congress" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Appropriations", "name": "Appropriations" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Congressional sessions", "name": "Congressional sessions" } ] } ], "topics": [ "American Law", "Appropriations", "Legislative Process" ] }