A central task of the federal budget process is supposed to be enacting the annual appropriations bills by the October 1 start of the fiscal year.
Congress has rarely completed this work on time. In the last 50 years, all of the regular appropriations bills have been signed into law by the deadline only four times.
The most recent time the appropriations process was completed by October 1 was 30 years ago, with action for the FY 1997 bills completed in September 1996.
The “good old days” when Congress did its budget work on time never actually existed. The process envisioned by the Congressional Budget Act has always been dysfunctional.
Appropriations Usually Finished after the Deadline
Since the modern budget process and timeline were first implemented for fiscal year 1977, the appropriations process has only been completed at the beginning of the fiscal year four times.
The first on-time completion was in FY 1977, when final action on the 13 individual appropriations bills[1] was completed on October 1, 1976. The appropriations process was not finished on time again until FY 1989.
All of the annual appropriations bills were enacted on time for both FY 1995 and 1997. These two successes bookended the dysfunctional FY 1996 appropriations process that featured two politically-charged government shutdowns.
The appropriations process has not been completed on time in the 30 years since.
From FY 2006 through 2026, only 5% of appropriations bills have been enacted on time, with the annual appropriations process being completed an average of 104 days after September 30, equivalent to taking until January 12.
Consolidation Rules the Day
Stand-alone appropriations bills have rarely been enacted into law in recent decades, while multi-bill consolidated packages, such as omnibuses and minibuses, have become the norm.
The most recent fiscal year in which every regular appropriations bill was enacted as stand-alone legislation was FY 2006.
Since FY 2011, only four regular appropriations bills have been enacted as stand-alone measures, which would amount to about 2% of the 192 bills that would have been enacted if all 12 had passed separately each year. Only the FY 2011 Defense bill, the FY 2015 Homeland Security bill, the FY 2017 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill, and the FY 2026 Homeland Security bill were enacted without other regular appropriations bills. Even then, three of these bills were not “clean”: the 2011 Defense bill carried a full-year CR for the other 11 bills, the 2017 MilCon-VA bill carried both a CR and the Zika response supplemental, and the 2026 Homeland Security bill included a retroactive CR for Homeland Security programs for which appropriations had lapsed.
Omnibus consolidated appropriations bills covering all of the year’s regular appropriations have been enacted eight times over the last 50 years, including FY 1987, 1988, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Many Continuing Resolutions
Congress enacted 210 continuing resolutions (CRs) over the last 50 years, primarily to prevent a funding lapse while final appropriations remained unfinished.
The median year saw 3 to 4 CR laws and about 83 days under temporary funding. In fiscal year 2001, 21 CRs were enacted, totaling 82 days. Fiscal years 1989, 1995, and 1997 are the only years that have not had any CRs enacted.
A full-year CR covered all of the regular appropriations bills for the first time in FY 2025. Nine of 11 bills received full-year CR treatment in FY 2007, 11 of 12 bills in FY 2011, and 7 of 12 in FY 2013. Full-year CRs also covered bills in FY 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1992.
Funding Gaps and Government Shutdowns
There have been 23 different funding gaps in the last 50 years. These shutdowns occurred in 16 different fiscal years, with 5 fiscal years featuring multiple shutdown episodes.
Most funding gaps were partial shutdowns, only affecting some of the annual appropriations bills, or even just certain agencies or programs in some instances. In FY 1977, about a dozen activities that had been funded in FY 1976 were excluded from the regular appropriations bills. So, even though the FY 1977 appropriations bills were completed on time, there was still a 10-day lapse in funding for certain programs, which was later restored by a continuing resolution.
Government-wide funding gaps, where appropriations lapsed for all of the regular appropriations bills, occurred in FY 1987, 1988, 1991, 2014, 2018, and 2026.
Several shutdowns were limited in scope or lasted for a short period of time. For example, one-day funding gaps occurred in FY 1983, FY 1985, FY 1987, and FY 1988, although FY 1983 and FY 1985 also experienced additional gaps of three and two days, respectively.
FY 2026 was unprecedented. There were three legal funding gaps totaling 120 full days: a 42 day government-wide shutdown, 3 days affecting 6 regular appropriations bills, and a 75-day lapse affecting the entire Department of Homeland Security. The FY 2026 Homeland Security appropriations bill that ended the DHS funding gap on April 30, 2026, did not provide regular annual appropriations for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agencies; those components subsequently received direct funding through the Secure America Act, signed on June 10. As a result, some federal agencies operated without regular appropriations for a total of 161 days, equivalent to 44% of the year.
Which Appropriations Bills Get Priority?
Congress passes the Legislative Branch appropriations bill on time more often than any other appropriations area. Over the FY 1977 to 2026 period, the Legislative Branch appropriations bill was enacted by the start of the fiscal year 16 times, equivalent to 32% of the time.
The Energy and Water bills and the Military Construction bills (including the Military Construction and the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill) were both enacted on time 13 times (26%), while the Defense and the Veterans bills (including the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies and the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill) were enacted on time 11 times (22%). In contrast, the Foreign Affairs bills have only been enacted on time 5 times (10%).
Congress often fails to finish Defense on time, but historically has been unwilling to allow its annual funding to remain under a CR. The Defense appropriations bill has only been subjected to a full-year CR treatment once, in FY 2025. The Defense bill, along with the Military Construction bills, are also the most frequently enacted on a stand-alone basis rather than in a consolidated package of other bills, with each being passed stand-alone 28 times (56%).
The Labor-HHS-Education bill has been the most likely to be left to a full year CR, at eight times (16%). The L-HHS-ED is also one of the most frequently added to consolidated packages, at 27 times (54%). The Foreign Affairs bills are the only ones more frequently included in consolidated packages, at 28 times (56%).
Modernize the Budget Process
By its own standard that prioritizes completion of the annual appropriations bills, the budget process created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 has been dysfunctional. All of the regular appropriations bills have only been enacted on time 8% of the time over the 50 years this process has been in place. The last time the appropriations process was completed by the beginning of the fiscal year was 30 years ago.
Over this same time period, discretionary spending has shrunk as a share of the annual budget, as autopilot spending programs and net interest costs have grown significantly. Fiscal year 1974 was the last time that discretionary spending made up a majority of outlays. In FY 2025, discretionary spending was about 27% of outlays. While discretionary spending has been shrinking as a share of the budgetary pie, overall spending has been growing faster than the national economy.
To help put the budget on a sustainable trajectory, the federal budget process must be modernized. Under the status quo, Congress has broad flexibility over final spending levels produced by the budget process, but the steps Congress is supposed to follow each year are hard-wired into the prescriptive process. Rather than primarily focusing on the steps that Congress is required to take each year, lawmakers should have a goals-based process that makes responsible fiscal outcomes the governing objective.
[1] The structure of the Appropriations Committees has evolved over the years. The House and Senate currently have 12 subcommittees that are each responsible for producing an annual appropriations bill. This 12 bill structure was established for fiscal year 2008. In FY 2006 and 2007, the House had 10 appropriations subcommittees, while the Senate had 12 subcommittees; this structure produced 11 appropriations bills. From 1971 to 2005, there were 13 annual appropriations bills from 13 subcommittees.