Amid tense budget negotiations, Congress often turns to continuing resolutions to avert a government shutdown. Every year Congress is supposed to approve twelve different appropriations bills by the start of the fiscal year, October 1. But that hasn’t happened since 1997. From that time until the end of 2021, Congress turned to continuing resolutions 126 times.
A continuing resolution allows Congress to continue to fund the government for a short period, when it can’t agree to a full year budget. For that reason, it is often called ‘stop gap funding,’ because it fills in the gap between approved budgets.
In September, Congress passed a continuing resolution, funding the government through December. When the end date of that resolution came, Congress still hadn’t passed or even come to an agreement on a full budget, so it passed another resolution.
“While this short-term measure is needed to avoid a government shutdown, we must use this additional time to enact a bipartisan, bicameral omnibus appropriations bill, which is the only way to provide certainty and support to working families, small businesses, veterans, and our military,” House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said. “With a new deadline of February 18, there is ample time for Republicans to join us for bipartisan, bicameral appropriations negotiations.”
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