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Summary

Most routine operations of federal departments and agencies are funded each year through the enactment of several regular appropriations acts. Since these bills are annual, expiring at the end of the fiscal year (September 30), regular appropriations bills for the subsequent fiscal year must be enacted by October 1. Final action on most regular appropriations bills, however, are frequently delayed beyond the start of the fiscal year. 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 generally enacted in the form of joint resolutions, such acts are referred to as continuing resolutions (or CRs). CRs may be divided into two categories based on duration -- 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, if earlier. Full-year continuing resolutions provide funding in lieu of one or more regular appropriations bills through the end of the fiscal year. Over the past 35 years, the nature, scope, and duration of continuing resolutions gradually expanded. From the early 1970s through 1987, CRs gradually expanded from being used to provide interim funding measures of comparatively brief duration and length to measures providing funding through the end of the fiscal year. The full-year measures included, in some cases, the full text of one or more 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, continuing resolutions have primarily been interim funding measures, and included major legislation less frequently. In certain years, delay in the enactment of regular appropriations measures and CRs has led to periods during which appropriations authority has lapsed. Such periods generally are referred to as funding gaps. Since Congress had not completed action on any of the 12 FY2009 regular appropriations bills, the House and Senate passed the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009 (FY2009 consolidated act, H.R. 2638), on September 24 and 27, 2008, respectively, clearing the measure for the President's signature on September 30 (P.L. 110-329). This act, in part, extends funding for nine regular appropriations bills through March 6, 2009, at last year's funding levels, and it provides full-year funding for and completes action on the remaining three FY2009 regular appropriations acts. These acts are (1) Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2009; (2) Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2009; and (3) Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2009. Congress passed the FY2009 consolidated act in the form of an "amendment between the houses" to H.R. 2638, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2009, replacing that text, with the FY2009 omnibus act.

Related Legislation:
• H.R.2638

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