The Senate is expected to do the same on Thursday, though there is still some lingering debate over which body should go first. Each year, Congress attempts to pass a new appropriations bills to fund discretionary government programs. Upon its return to Washington in November after the elections, the lame duck Congress will either pass a new appropriations bill or another continuing resolution. Our strong hope is the real bill, with the revised spending levels, will be approved by December.
If not, a second continuing resolution would likely extend through February or March of next year. It is probably the last best hope that funding for the discrimination claims will be provided prior to the elections.
However, as of press time today, the effort to get this accomplished next week is frankly looking like an uphill battle. The amount of funding available for particular activities previously provided based on a rate or as an anomaly can be increased or decreased when the relevant regular appropriations act is subsequently enacted. Congress is not bound by these conventions in determining funding levels, however, and there have been several variations in practice over the years in how the funding for projects and activities under a continuing resolution has been provided.
Continuing resolutions generally do not allow new activities to be initiated. Instead, funding is usually available only for activities conducted during the past year, and existing conditions and limitations on program activity are typically retained by language contained within the resolution's text. During the 25 fiscal years covering FYFY, Congress did not once enact all of the regular appropriations acts on time.
As a result, one or more continuing resolutions were enacted each year during this period, except for FY In an effort to reduce the reliance on continuing resolutions, the Congressional Budget Act of P. As was previously noted, after FY, all of the regular appropriations acts were enacted on time in only three other instances—for FY, FY, and FY Consequently, one or more continuing resolutions were needed each year during this period.
In total, continuing resolutions were enacted into law during the period covering FYFY, ranging from zero to 21 in any single fiscal year. On average, about six continuing resolutions were enacted each fiscal year during this interval see Table 3 , at the end of the report, for further information on all CRs enacted between FY and FY Full-year continuing resolutions provide funding for one or more of the regular appropriations acts for the remainder of the fiscal year through June 30 for FY and prior years, and through September 30 for FY and subsequent years.
They represent a determination by Congress to abandon any further efforts to enact separately the remaining unfinished regular appropriations acts for the fiscal year, and to bring the annual appropriations process for that year to a close except for the later consideration of supplemental appropriations acts. Prior to the full implementation of the Budget Act in FY, full-year continuing resolutions were used occasionally. For each of the 11 fiscal years following FY, covering FYFY, Congress enacted a full-year continuing resolution covering at least one regular appropriations act.
Most recently, a full-year continuing resolution was enacted for FY Full-year continuing resolutions may provide appropriations in different ways, including 1 by formulaic provisions e. For example, P. Table 1 identifies the 14 full-year continuing resolutions enacted for the period since FY Eight of the measures included at least one formulaic funding provision, while the remaining six did not.
Nine of the 14 full-year continuing resolutions during this period were enacted in the first quarter of the fiscal year—three in October, two in November, and four in December. The five remaining measures, however, were enacted during the following session, between February 15 and June 5. As Table 1 shows, full-year continuing resolutions enacted during the first six years of this period were relatively short measures, ranging in length from one to four pages in the Statutes-at-Large.
Beginning with FY and extending through FY, however, the measures became much lengthier, ranging in length from 19 to pages averaging pages.
The greater page length of full-year continuing resolutions enacted for the period covering FYFY may be explained by two factors.
First, full-year continuing resolutions enacted prior to FY generally established funding levels by a formulaic reference to pending regular appropriations acts. With regard to a specific appropriations act, for example, funding levels may have been keyed to the lesser of the amounts provided in the House-passed or Senate-passed versions of the act. Beginning with FY, however, Congress largely abandoned the use of formulaic references to establish funding levels. Instead, the full text of some or all of the covered regular appropriations acts usually was incorporated into the full-year continuing resolution, thereby increasing its length considerably.
Secondly, the number of regular appropriations acts covered by full-year continuing resolutions increased significantly during the FYFY period. For the period covering FYFY, the number of regular appropriations acts covered by continuing resolutions for the full fiscal year ranged from one to eight averaging four. Beginning with FY and extending through FY, the number of covered acts ranged from 5 to 13 averaging 9. In the above respect, P.
Title IV extends through the end of the fiscal year the expiration of P. This full year continuing resolution extended through the end of the fiscal year the expiration date of P. This full year continuing resolution extended through the end of FY the expiration date of P. During the th Congress, the House and Senate appropriations subcommittee jurisdictions were not entirely parallel.
As a result, the forms in which the initial pieces of appropriations legislation were considered differed between the chambers. Continuing resolutions have been a significant element of the annual appropriations process during the last 15 fiscal years, covering FYFY While the average number of such measures enacted per year was about 6 6. Duration in days is measured, in the case of the initial continuing resolution for a fiscal year, from the first day of the year October 1.
For subsequent continuing resolutions for a fiscal year, duration in days is measured from the day after the expiration of the preceding continuing resolution. The fifth continuing resolution for FY did not change the expiration date of January 31, , established in the preceding continuing resolution.
During these last 15 fiscal years, Congress provided funding by means of a continuing resolution for an average of over four months Taking into account the total duration of continuing resolutions enacted for each fiscal year, the period for which continuing appropriations were provided ranged from 21 days to days.
On average, each of the 92 continuing resolutions enacted lasted for almost 29 In the first four instances FYFY , the expiration date in the final continuing resolution was set in the first quarter of the fiscal year, on a date occurring between October 21 and December The expiration date in the final continuing resolution for the next three fiscal years FYFY , however, was set in the following session on a date occurring between January 10 and February While the expiration dates in the final continuing resolutions for five of the next eight fiscal years FY, FY, FY, FY, and FY were in the first quarter of the fiscal year on a date occurring between December 8 and December 31, the final continuing resolution for FY carried an expiration date of March 11, The final continuing resolutions for FY and FY provided funding through the remainder of the fiscal year.
Figure 1 presents a representation of both the number and duration of continuing resolutions for FYFY As the figure shows, there is no significant correlation between these two variables. For example, six continuing resolutions were enacted for both FY and FY, but the same number of measures lasted for a period of 57 days for FY and only 21 days for FY The largest number of continuing resolutions enacted for a single fiscal year during this period—21 for FY—covered a period lasting 82 days, at an average duration of 3.
The smallest number enacted—two each for FY and FY—covered days and 79 days, respectively, at an average duration of 81 days and 40 days per act. Figure 1 also shows considerable mix in the use of shorter-term and longer-term continuing resolutions for a single fiscal year. For example, for FY, 21 continuing resolutions covered the first 82 days of the fiscal year. The first 25 days were covered by a series of four continuing resolutions lasting between five and eight days each.
The next 10 days, a period of intense legislative negotiations leading up to the national elections on November 7, , were covered by a series of 10 one-day continuing resolutions. The next 31 days were covered by two continuing resolutions, the first lasting 10 days and the second lasting 21 days. The first of these two continuing resolutions was enacted into law on November 4, the Saturday before the election, and extended through November 14, the second day of a lame-duck session.
The second continuing resolution was enacted into law on November 15 and expired on December 5, which was 10 days before the lame-duck session ended. The remaining five continuing resolutions, which ranged in duration from one to six days, covered the remainder of the lame-duck session and several days beyond as the final appropriations legislation passed by Congress was being processed for the President's approval.
Table 3 provides more detailed information on the number, length, and duration of continuing appropriations acts enacted for FYFY As indicated previously, this represents the period during which the congressional budget process as established by the Budget Act has been in effect, that is, since the change in the start of the fiscal year from July 1 to October 1.
Note : Each segment of a bar for a fiscal year represents the duration in days of one continuing resolution. The left-most segment represents the first continuing resolution, effective beginning on October 1 the start of the fiscal year. Duration in days is measured, in the case of the initial continuing resolution for a fiscal year, from the first day of the year through the expiration date.
Duration in days is measured, in the case of the initial continuing resolution for a fiscal year, from the first day of the year October 1 through the expiration date.
In several instances, as appropriate, the number of days reflects an extra day in a leap year every fourth year beginning with calendar year Several continuing resolutions provided continuing appropriations for mixed periods of time. For example, three continuing resolutions— P. See also the discussion of actions for FY under footnote "j. Title IV 95 Stat. Title I 98 Stat. Title I Stat. Section c of P. A total of 13 continuing resolutions were enacted for FY and one was vetoed during a period of heightened confrontation over budgetary legislation between Congress and President Bill Clinton.
Two funding gaps occurred, the first in mid-November and the second from mid-December until early January The continuing resolutions for this year may be divided into two categories depending on whether their coverage generally was comprehensive or selective.
Nine of the continuing resolutions enacted for FY generally provided short-term funding for all activities under the regular appropriations acts that had not yet been enacted, while the other four provided funding only for selected activities within certain acts.
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