The Process Congress Designed Isn't the Process Congress Uses
The law requires 12 standalone appropriations bills, each debated and passed on its own before October 1. Since the modern budget process began, Congress has managed that only four times. Here's the seven-part explanation for why regular order gave way to continuing resolutions, omnibus packages, and shutdowns as the default.
Sources & Further Reading
- CRS, "Past Government Shutdowns: Key Resources" (R41759)
- CRS, "Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects" (RL34680)
- CRS, "Federal Funding Gaps: A Brief Overview" (RS20348)
- CBO, "The Effects of the Partial Shutdown Ending in January 2019"
- CBO, "A Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of the Government Shutdown on the Economy Under Three Scenarios" (2025)
- GAO, "Defense Budget: Effects of Continuing Resolutions on Selected Activities and Programs Critical to DOD's National Security Mission" (GAO-26-107065)
- GAO, "Federal Budget: Selected Agencies and Programs Used Strategies to Manage Constraints of Continuing Resolutions" (GAO-22-104701)
- Pew Research Center, "Congress has long struggled to pass spending bills on time"
- Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Government Shutdowns Q&A
- U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian
- Bipartisan Policy Center, Continuing Resolutions Explainer
This page draws on Congressional Research Service reports on funding gaps and shutdowns, Congressional Budget Office analyses of the 2018-19 and 2025 shutdowns' economic effects, Government Accountability Office reports on continuing resolutions' effects on federal agencies and defense programs, and Pew Research Center's tracking of on-time appropriations since FY1977. The January 2026 shooting of Alex Pretti and its effect on 2026 Department of Homeland Security funding are described strictly as a documented event shaping the funding dispute, consistent with this site's nonpartisan standard, and were still under official review as of this page's publication. The hero photograph of the Capitol dome at night is a public domain U.S. government work by the Architect of the Capitol, via Wikimedia Commons.