# Continuing Resolution A **stopgap appropriations measure** that funds the government at (roughly) existing levels when the twelve regular appropriations bills (the [[Appropriations Process]]) aren't finished by the Oct 1 deadline. A CR buys time — days, weeks, or months — and prevents a [[Government Shutdown]]. Governing by CR has become the **norm rather than the exception**. ## Why CRs are a problem - They **freeze spending at last year's levels**, ignoring new needs and inflation — a real cut in real terms, and especially disruptive for the military and multi-year programs. - They **block new starts** — no program can begin under a CR. - A **full-year CR** (funding the entire year at prior levels because Congress never passed real bills) is the worst case, hollowing out budgeting entirely. - They concentrate leverage at each cliff, inviting brinkmanship. ## The RWKB angle The CR is the instrument of **government-by-crisis**. Each expiration is a manufactured deadline that can be used as hostage leverage — for border policy, spending cuts, or to force a [[Government Shutdown]] when one side refuses to fold. FY2026 ran on a CR through Jan 30, 2026 after the record 43-day shutdown, then lapsed into a second shutdown. The shift from regular order to perpetual stopgaps is a structural story about a [[Federal Budget Process]] that no longer works as designed. ## The FY2027 CR (July–August 2026) With the Senate Appropriations Committee frozen at **zero of twelve** bills all summer (no Collins–Murray 302(a) topline), the expected stopgap arrived unusually early — and became the vehicle for a real institutional fight: - **July 21 — House passes H.R. 9770, 220–205:** a bare-bones CR through **December 4, 2026**, explicitly designed to push any shutdown fight **past the November midterms**. Near-party-line: Thomas Massie the only Republican opposed; six Democrats in favor. - **August 2 — Senate bipartisan rewrite released** (Collins–Murray, with Schumer's endorsement): end date **December 11**; administration **anomalies** added (accelerated Navy shipbuilding, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, FBI prep for the 2028 Olympics, housing-program continuity); **excludes** the White House's $1B "Trump-class" battleship request; closes a transfer "loophole" Democrats said would have shifted more funds to Border Patrol; extends surface-transportation funding and economic pacts with sub-Saharan African countries and Haiti. - **The sleeper provision: a statutory block on OMB's grants rule** (which would give senior political appointees approval power over federal grants, otherwise effective Oct 1) **until December 11** — the first *bipartisan, statutory* counter to the [[Russell Vought]]-era OMB power expansion. Collins herself warned the rule could "politicize grants." Sen. John Kennedy has already promised a "big fight" over it in December. - **August 8 — Senate passes, 90–6**, in the early hours of Saturday, after a days-long fight over a White House-sought delay of a hemp-derived THC ban (a Budd–Ricketts amendment to strip the delay was tabled 61–32). - **September 1 — House accepts the Senate version, 370–48** (under suspension of the rules). - **September 2 — signed into law as P.L. 119-103.** Funding runs through **December 11, 2026**, 38 days after the November 3 midterms, so the full-year FY2027 fight moves to the lame duck. At signing, 3 of 12 FY2027 bills had passed the House and none had been reported in the Senate. A fourth straight year of governing by stopgap rather than regular order — see [[Federal Budget FY2027 Request]] and [[Government Shutdown]]. ## Related - [[Government Shutdown]] · [[Appropriations Process]] · [[Federal Budget Process]] - [[Federal Budget FY2026]] · [[Budget Hub]]