US Government Funded to December 11 After a Year of Record Shutdowns
Fiscal year 2027 started on October 1 with the US government open. That’s worth saying, because over the past twelve months it often wasn’t.
It’s running on a continuing resolution. H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, became Public Law 119-103 on September 2, 2026. It keeps agencies funded at existing levels until December 11, 72 days into the fiscal year. If Congress does nothing more, funding lapses on December 12. None of the twelve regular appropriations bills for the year has been enacted.
The vote was lopsided by recent standards. The Senate passed it 90 to 6 on August 8 and the House 370 to 48 on September 1, two months before the midterms on November 3.
Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The year of shutdowns
The 2025 shutdown ran from October 1 to November 12, 43 days, the longest full shutdown on record. About 900,000 federal employees were furloughed. It ended with H.R. 5371, which passed the Senate 60 to 40 and the House 222 to 209. That bill funded most of the government until January 30, 2026, passed three full-year appropriations bills, guaranteed back pay and reversed layoffs made during the shutdown. About 4,100 layoff notices issued in October and November were canceled.
January brought the next deadline. Three more full-year bills were signed on January 23. On January 29 a Senate package failed 45 to 55 over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, after a fatal shooting by Customs and Border Protection agents on January 24. The Senate passed five bills plus a two-week stopgap for DHS on January 30, but the House didn’t vote until February 3. For about four days, parts of the government had no appropriation.
Then DHS ran out on its own. When its stopgap expired on February 14, the department went into a partial shutdown that lasted until April 30, 76 days, the longest funding lapse on record. It ended with funding for ICE and CBP moved into a separate budget reconciliation bill.
So in one fiscal year, the United States had its longest full shutdown and its longest partial one.
What’s in the stopgap
Continuing resolutions carry riders, called anomalies, and this one has a few that matter. Up to $26.37 billion goes to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund. The National Flood Insurance Program is extended. Members of Congress get a pay freeze. And OMB is barred from finalizing its rewrite of the Uniform Guidance, the rules for federal grants, until December 11. The bill also extended the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 to the same date, its third short extension since the law lapsed during the 2025 shutdown.
The December problem
House appropriators have advanced all twelve FY2027 bills. The Senate hasn’t released any, mainly because of disagreement over the President’s request for $1.5 trillion in defense spending. The lame-duck session after the election will have to deal with the December 11 deadline, the annual defense authorization bill, the farm bill and possibly a third reconciliation bill, all at once.
How other systems avoid this
Shutdowns are rare outside the United States, because most parliamentary systems have an automatic fallback. If a budget isn’t passed in time, spending continues at the previous year’s level, or the government falls and an election follows. Either way, the lights stay on. In the US system, an appropriation lapse means agencies legally have to stop most work. That design, set by the Antideficiency Act, is what turns a budget fight into a shutdown.
The other fiscal clock is further off. The debt limit now stands at $41.1 trillion after a $5 trillion increase in July 2025, and outside projections don’t see it binding until early to mid-2027.