Continuing resolution (legislation)
A Continuing Resolution (CR) is a legislative measure used by the U.S. federal government to maintain funding for government operations when a new budget has not been agreed upon. The federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30, during which the budget is divided into twelve appropriations for various services. When Congress and the President are unable to reach a long-term budget agreement, a CR allows for the temporary continuation of funding at existing levels, preventing interruptions in critical government services such as military support, social programs, and research facilities.
Continuing resolutions are often seen as a stopgap solution amidst political gridlock, especially in times of divided government where opposing parties control different branches. Historically, the use of CRs has increased since the 1970s, closely tied to heightened partisanship and political strategy. Major government shutdowns have occurred throughout U.S. history, notably during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, where budget negotiations became a focal point for political maneuvering. Continuing resolutions, while a necessary tool for maintaining government operations, have also become a source of contention and strategy within the broader political landscape, affecting public perception of Congress and its efficacy.
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Continuing resolution (legislation)
Continuing resolutions deal specifically with how the US federal government handles—or more accurately fails to handle—its massive budget. The fiscal year for the federal government runs from October 1 to September 30. By law, the budget is divided into twelve separate appropriations, each of which covers a specific service funded by taxpayer monies. Budget resolutions theoretically are sent by the President to Congress where they are debated, amended, and then passed by both houses of Congress. The President signs the budget sometime in the spring to ensure uninterrupted services.
The continuing resolution was adopted as stopgap appropriations legislation passed by both houses of Congress to provide monies for designated periods of time (several days to several weeks) to ensure that the critical federal government operations—government departments, military support groups, agencies, research facilities, and social programs—continue while legislators and the President work out difficult or long-term budget agreements. Under a continuing resolution, government operations may continue only at current spending levels, thus postponing potentially divisive debate on spending cuts and/or allotments and the distribution of federal monies.
When Congress cannot agree to pass a continuing resolution, or threatens not to, the opposition party is able to gain some leverage or earn some political advantage. In the meantime, the federal government must stop operation of nonessential services from the national park systems to healthcare services. These are closed and their personnel are furloughed until the resolution is passed. This is called a government shutdown and its occurence has become more common in the late twentieth and twenty-first century. Some shutdowns have been as short as just a day, while the longest US shutdown lasted for over a month.
Brief History
Continuing resolutions have been a practical part of the federal budget process since the rise of party machines during Reconstruction. Congress faces a wide variety of pressing issues and unanticipated domestic and international crises. Continuing resolutions have been the logical way for the government to avoid the unnecessary interruption of services and the ensuing confusion.
Since the 1970s, however, such has generally not been the case because the federal government has been politically divided (that is, opposing parties have controlled the houses of Congress and the presidency). Budget negotiations become entangled in often rancorous partisan politics and continuing resolutions themselves become a weapon in that battle. Since 1976, when Democratic President Jimmy Carter fell out of favor with the Democratic Congress and faced enormous opposition from the Republican minority, the government has been shut down twenty-one times. That threat is inflated by saturation coverage by the media that makes the budget process high drama as both parties attempt to redesign elements of the budget they object to. Generally Republicans have sought to maintain defense spending at the expense of social services, and Democrats have taken the opposite approach.
Topic Today
The template for the current controversy surrounding continuing resolutions is the 1995 prolonged standoff, between President Bill Clinton and the then-new Republican majority at the end of his first term. When the Republicans attached a minor Medicare premium change as a rider to the continuing resolution, Clinton saw an opportunity. He vetoed the continuing resolution, calling the change an increase in Medicare premium. In an effort to demonstrate the power of the new majority, newly elected House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia called Clinton’s bluff and committed his majority party not to submit a revised budget, essentially shutting down the federal government. In what historians now view as a classic assertion of Clinton’s political savvy and deft maneuvering, Clinton rallied the country to blame the GOP for the government shutdown, and the GOP lost big in the next election. Since then, continuing resolutions have been part of the maneuvering between the parties. During Barack Obama’s presidency, the media focused particularly on the contest of wills (and conflict of personalities) between Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and President Obama. After the Republicans failed to coalesce behind a strong candidate to challenge Obama for a second term, the budget process became a part of their political strategy. They used the threat of a government shutdown and even a federal government debt default. During Donald Trump's presidency, he insisted on a government shutdown when the proposed budget did not include the funding he wanted for a border wall. The government shutdown lasted almost five weeks before Trump finally conceded and agreed to sign legislation that would temporarily reopen the government.
The often bitter debate, inevitable standoffs, and finger pointing over continuing resolutions have given Congress, at a record low in term of public support, the unexpected (and according to some, entirely unconstitutional) opportunity to repeatedly revisit legislation and/or social programs already in place that they deem inappropriate or outside the purview of the federal government. During Obama’s presidency, for example, there were dozens of efforts to withhold funding from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also called Obamacare). As a way to regain political edge, the Obama White House in turn devised what it called a sequester in which, should budget negotiations fail, across-the-board deep cuts in the federal budget, including military spending, would go into place automatically. That strategy created an entirely new and controversial level to the political gamesmanship that has become the budget process.
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