Where things stand
Every federal agency funded through annual appropriations is operating under the continuing resolution enacted as P.L. 119-103 on September 2, 2026. It continues funding at fiscal year 2026 rates through December 11, 2026. The House Appropriations Committee approved all 12 of its FY2027 bills between April and June, and the full House passed 3: Agriculture, Military Construction-VA, and National Security-State. The Senate Appropriations Committee had not reported any FY2027 bill, and the Senate had passed none.
Congress left for the midterm-election recess with that gap unresolved; there has been no committee or floor action on FY2027 bills since. Lawmakers return on November 9 for the lame-duck session, with the December 11 expiration as the first forcing deadline. Several other authorities expire with the CR, which tends to pull them into the same year-end package.
Year-end calendar
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Nov. 3, 2026 | Midterm elections. The result can change whether leaders prefer a full-year deal now or a short CR into the new Congress. |
| Nov. 9, 2026 | House and Senate return for the lame-duck session of the 119th Congress. |
| December 11, 2026 | Last day of funding under P.L. 119-103. The same date ends the CR’s extensions of the National Flood Insurance Program, surface transportation programs including the Highway Trust Fund, EPA’s TSCA fee authority, and the CR’s block on OMB’s federal grants rule. |
| Dec. 12, 2026 | First day without appropriations for any agency whose bill has not been enacted or extended. |
| Dec. 31, 2026 | Separate health deadlines: Community Health Center Fund mandatory funding, TANF, the 2.5% Medicare physician payment increase, and other health extenders. These do not cause a shutdown but often ride on the same package. |
| Jan. 3, 2027 | The 120th Congress convenes. Bills not enacted by then must be reintroduced; a CR “into the new Congress” hands the unfinished bills to it. |
The 2018 farm bill extension ended on September 30, 2026, and the CR does not broadly extend its remaining authorities, so farm programs are a separate year-end question rather than a funding deadline.
Three ways the deadline can resolve
- Full-year bills. Congress enacts all 12 bills, usually bundled into an omnibus or several minibus packages. Agencies covered by an enacted bill are funded through September 30, 2027, and cannot shut down for the rest of the fiscal year.
- Another continuing resolution. Congress extends current funding into early 2027, setting a new deadline. This has been the most common outcome in recent years.
- A mix—or a lapse. Some bills are enacted while others are extended. If any bill is neither enacted nor extended by the deadline, the agencies it funds face a lapse beginning December 12. That is how the partial shutdowns of January–February and February–April 2026 happened.
How to read this tracker
A bill must clear five stages: committee and floor approval in each chamber, then the President’s signature. Agreement between the chambers usually happens in a negotiated final text rather than by one chamber accepting the other’s version unchanged. A committee vote is a useful signal of priorities, but it does not change funding authority. We update the headline status only when funding law changes; see the editorial policy.
Recent history shows why the bill-by-bill view matters. For fiscal year 2026, three bills became law with the November 12, 2025 law that ended the 43-day shutdown, more followed in January and February 2026, and Homeland Security was the last—leaving DHS without appropriations from February 14 to April 30, 2026.
Sources
- CRS R49353: Overview of continuing appropriations for FY2027 (Division A of P.L. 119-103)
- CRFB Appropriations Watch: FY2027 bill status and votes
- Holland & Knight, October 9, 2026: year-end deadlines after the midterms
- NLIHC, October 5, 2026: Congress in recess until November 9
- House Appropriations Committee · Senate Appropriations Committee
- CRFB Appropriations Watch: FY2026, including the three lapses