Interim Continuing Resolutions (CRs): Potential Impacts on Agency Operations

Clinton T. Brass
Analyst in Government Organization and Management

Continuing appropriations acts, often known as continuing resolutions (CRs), have been a component of the annual appropriations process for decades. When Congress and the President do not reach final decisions about one or more regular appropriations acts by the beginning of the federal fiscal year, October 1, they often enact a CR. Two general types of CRs are used. An "interim" CR provides agencies with stopgap funding for a period of time until final appropriations decisions are made, or until enactment of another interim CR. A "full-year" CR provides final funding amounts for the remainder of a fiscal year in lieu of one or more regular appropriations acts. "Anomalies" may be included in an interim CR to prevent what parties to CR negotiations perceive as major problems that would be caused if an otherwise uniform approach were used to provide funding and impose related restrictions. The President, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and agencies often are involved with Congress in the process of formulating, negotiating, and implementing interim CRs. An implication of their involvement is that they may influence the potential impacts of interim CRs. 

Interim CRs typically are intended to both (1) preserve congressional prerogatives to make final decisions on full-year funding levels and (2) prevent a funding gap and corresponding government shutdown. Consequently, interim CRs provide relatively restrictive funding levels for agencies and usually prohibit projects or activities that were not funded in the previous year (sometimes called "new starts"). Interim CRs also impose some paperwork burden on federal agencies. Two other potential impacts might be identified. First, the restrictive funding level of an interim CR may impact upon an agency's activities, compared to the situation of receiving fullyear appropriations. For example, agency personnel may reduce or delay a variety of actions, including hiring, award of contracts, and travel. Second, an agency funded by an interim CR may experience some uncertainty about what its final funding level will be. Uncertainty may cause an agency to alter its operations, rates of spending, and spending patterns over time, with potential ripple effects for internal management of the agency and its programmatic activities. Whether any potential impacts manifest themselves in actual cases would depend on specific circumstances, including how the interim CR is crafted, the time of year, and an agency's or program's particular operations. OMB and agency documents, as well as Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports, provide additional perspectives on potential impacts of interim CRs. 

Related issues for Congress may include use of anomalies to manage impacts, congressional access to information and views from agencies and their employees, and the assumptions that are used when assessing potential impacts. 

More extensive analysis on this subject is available in CRS Congressional Distribution Memorandum, Potential Impacts of Interim Continuing Resolutions (CRs) on Agency Operations and the Functioning of the Federal Government, coordinated by Clinton T. Brass (available on request).


Date of Report: March 16, 2010
Number of Pages: 18
Order Number: RL34700
Price: $29.95

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