Reference guide

Government shutdown glossary

Federal budget language is precise, but it should not be impenetrable. These short definitions explain the terms used in official notices and our guides.

Antideficiency Act: Federal law that generally prevents agencies from obligating or spending money before appropriations are available, subject to specific exceptions.
Appropriation: Legal authority Congress provides for federal agencies to incur obligations and make payments for specified purposes.
Continuing resolution (CR): Temporary legislation that keeps some or all federal activities funded when regular appropriations are unfinished.
Discretionary spending: Funding Congress controls through annual appropriations, including many agency operating budgets.
Excepted employee: An employee directed to perform work that may legally continue during a funding lapse. Pay may be delayed until appropriations return.
Exempt employee or activity: Work unaffected by the lapse because it has available funding, such as multi-year or fee funding.
Federal fiscal year: The federal accounting year, running from October 1 through September 30.
Funding gap: A period when budget authority expires before replacement funding is enacted. A brief gap may not always result in a full operational shutdown.
Furlough: Temporary non-duty, non-pay status. In a shutdown furlough, affected federal employees stop ordinary work until recalled or funding returns.
Lapse in appropriations: The expiration of funding authority for one or more federal activities. This is the legal trigger commonly associated with a shutdown.
Mandatory spending: Spending controlled by laws other than annual appropriations. Programs can still depend on annually funded administrative work.
Orderly shutdown: The limited work agencies perform to suspend non-excepted operations safely and notify employees after funding lapses.
Regular appropriations bills: The 12 annual bills through which Congress traditionally funds categories of discretionary federal activity.
Shutdown contingency plan: An agency document describing which activities and staff it expects to continue or suspend during a funding lapse.
Stop-work order: Formal contract direction requiring a contractor to stop specified work for a period under the contract’s terms.
Government Employee Fair Treatment Act: 2019 law requiring retroactive pay for affected federal employees after a covered funding lapse. It does not automatically cover contractor employees.
Omnibus / minibus: An omnibus packages many regular appropriations bills; a minibus packages several. Either can prevent a lapse for the agencies it funds while others remain exposed.
Partial shutdown: A lapse that affects some agencies because their appropriations bill expired, while other agencies remain funded under bills or a CR that are still in force.