National Taxpayers Union’s Definitive Congressional Appropriations History Database tracks how Congress completed the regular annual appropriations process for each of the last 50 years, from FY 1977 through 2026.
It identifies how each regular appropriations area ultimately received full-year funding, the legislative vehicle used, when that funding was enacted, and the extent to which Congress relied on continuing resolutions or experienced funding gaps.
The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 established the modern budget process and shifted the federal fiscal year from a July 1 start to an October 1 start, beginning with FY 1977. The annual appropriations process is intended to provide discretionary funding by the beginning of the upcoming fiscal year. Congress has rarely completed that work on time. From FY 1977 through FY 2026, all regular appropriations areas were enacted no later than October 1 in only four fiscal years.
The Database presents the historical record in three ways:
Appropriations Subcommittee Outcomes. Tracks the final disposition of each historical regular appropriations area, each generally corresponding to a bill produced by an Appropriations Subcommittee.[1] It identifies the final legislative vehicle and public law, enactment date, timing relative to October 1, temporary continuing-resolution coverage, funding-gap days, and the order in which appropriations areas were completed during the fiscal year.
Final Funding Laws. Identifies the laws that ultimately provided full-year regular appropriations. These include stand-alone regular appropriations acts, minibuses containing multiple regular appropriations divisions, omnibus or consolidated appropriations acts, full-year continuing resolutions, and measures combining regular appropriations with full-year continuing-resolution funding for other areas.
Annual Summary. Provides a fiscal-year-level overview of the appropriations process, including the number and percentage of regular appropriations areas enacted by October 1, the date the annual process was completed, the use and duration of temporary continuing resolutions, funding gaps, and the number of appropriations areas ultimately funded through a full-year continuing resolution.
The Database only covers the regular annual appropriations, and does not capture supplemental appropriations measures.
How We Made This: Sources and Methodology
Primary sources of the Appropriations Database include: the United States Statutes at Large include all laws and resolutions enacted by Congress; the Library of Congress’s Congress.gov legislative database; the Congressional Research Service’s Appropriations Status Tables cover appropriations bills from FY 1999 to FY 2027; the United States Senate’s Appropriations Legislation tables cover appropriations bills from FY 1986 to FY 2016; the Congressional Research Service report Continuing Resolutions: Overview of Components and Practices includes a table of all enacted continuing resolutions from FY 1977 to 2026; and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The database includes Congress.gov links to each appropriations-area outcome and final funding law. Artificial intelligence research tools were used to assist with collecting, compiling, and organizing the historical data.
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.