Data Focus
Congress and the president must take actions before certain deadlines to ensure the government is funded before the start of the next fiscal year on October 1. When these deadlines are not met, Congress often takes stopgap measures outside of the regular process.
Data Findings
FY 2022: Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown when it passed continuing resolutions on September 30 and December 2, 2021; the continuing resolution kept the government funded through February 18, 2022.
At the time of publication, the House has passed nine of the 12 appropriations bills. The Senate has released all 12 appropriations bills but has passed none.
FY 2021: The FY 2021 budget and appropriations process was characteristically rocky and unorthodox during the 116th Congress. Neither the House nor Senate considered a budget resolution. The House made some progress on appropriations bills, having reported all twelve out of committee and passed 10 of the twelve by the end of the fiscal year on September 30th.
The Senate, however, made little progress. None of its twelve bills were reported out of committee and none received floor consideration by the start of FY 2021. After a series of five continuing resolutions, lawmakers narrowly avoided a government shutdown with the passage of the FY2021 Omnibus and COVID Relief and Response Act on December 21st, 2021, 81 days after the fiscal year began. President Trump signed the omnibus package into law on December 27th, 2020, the day before government funding was set to expire.