The shutdown that is almost certain to start on Wednesday will be the 21st disruption of federal funding in the last 50 years, and the third to occur during a Trump presidency.
How the federal government has been funded each fiscal year
Funding lapses and shutdowns
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
March
April
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Shutdowns are just one symptom of the partisan polarization that has increasingly gripped Congress in recent decades. That polarization has caused dysfunction around the spending process, a core function of Congress that was once decided by high-level bipartisan deal-making on how to spend federal dollars. These days, lawmakers who once saw failing to produce or pass a spending bill as a crisis are rarely able to do so on time, making shutdowns like the imminent one a routine threat.
Under the appropriations process that has been in place since the mid-1970s, Congress must pass 12 individual spending bills by Oct. 1, the start of the government’s fiscal year — a feat it has achieved only five times. The bills cover what is known as “discretionary spending,” the portion controlled by Congress, which accounts for a quarter of what the government spends each year. (Spending on entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, and interest payments on the federal debt, are “mandatory spending,” or automatic without any action by Congress.)
Number of stand-alone funding bills passed per fiscal year
Passed after start of fiscal year
- ’77
- ’78
- ’79
- ’80
- ’81
- ’82
- ’83
- ’84
- ’85
- ’86
- ’87
- ’88
- ’89
- ’90
- ’91
- ’92
- ’93
- ’94
- ’95
- ’96
- ’97
- ’98
- ’99
- ’00
- ’01
- ’02
- ’03
- ’04
- ’05
- ’06
- ’07
- ’08
- ’09
- ’10
- ’11
- ’12
- ’13
- ’14
- ’15
- ’16
- ’17
- ’18
- ’19
- ’20
- ’21
- ’22
- ’23
- ’24
- ’25
- ’26
Note: The number of requisite spending bills needed to fund the federal government has fluctuated between 11 and 13 since the 1977 fiscal year.
If Congress fails to produce its bills by the October deadline, lawmakers must pass a stopgap spending measure known as a continuing resolution, or C.R., to keep funding flowing and avert a shutdown. Such bills usually maintain funding at existing levels, depriving Congress of the ability to raise or cut spending. They also hem in government operations, since agencies’ activities can be limited, or even halted altogether, under a temporary spending law.
The demise of the appropriations process in recent decades has meant that Congress has largely relied on C.R.s to fund the government for much of the last 30 years. And when lawmakers do consider regular spending measures, it’s usually an all-or-nothing affair, in which they roll all the bills funding diffuse functions of government into a single package called an “omnibus.” Resorting to an omnibus is now common, even though it is reviled by many rank-and-file lawmakers who resent being deprived of the ability to resist individual spending provisions without derailing the sole vehicle for averting a shutdown.
Number of spending bills passed in “omnibuses”
Passed after start of fiscal year
- ’77
- ’78
- ’79
- ’80
- ’81
- ’82
- ’83
- ’84
- ’85
- ’86
- ’87
- ’88
- ’89
- ’90
- ’91
- ’92
- ’93
- ’94
- ’95
- ’96
- ’97
- ’98
- ’99
- ’00
- ’01
- ’02
- ’03
- ’04
- ’05
- ’06
- ’07
- ’08
- ’09
- ’10
- ’11
- ’12
- ’13
- ’14
- ’15
- ’16
- ’17
- ’18
- ’19
- ’20
- ’21
- ’22
- ’23
- ’24
- ’25
- ’26
Note: The number of requisite spending bills to fund the federal government has fluctuated between 11 and 13 since the 1977 fiscal year.
The last time Congress successfully passed individual bills to fully fund the government on time was in 1996, just in time for the 1997 fiscal year. Since 2010, only two stand-alone funding bills have become law. One was the 2011 defense appropriations bill, which included a stopgap measure to fund the rest of the government. The other was the 2015 homeland security appropriations bill, which became law more than five months into the fiscal year. That year, the rest of the government was funded by mid-December — still two and a half months late — by a single piece of legislation containing the other 11 requisite bills.
Government funding has been appropriated this way for the past nine fiscal years, with Congress cramming 108 spending measures into 13 bills. Only two of the bills were enacted before the start of the fiscal year. Most were passed late, with nearly half approved in February or later. The 2017 omnibus became law in early May, with less than five months of the fiscal year left.
Congress has passed C.R.s in all but three of the fiscal years since 1977.
Number of days each fiscal year covered by at least one C.R.
- ’77
- ’78
- ’79
- ’80
- ’81
- ’82
- ’83
- ’84
- ’85
- ’86
- ’87
- ’88
- ’89
- ’90
- ’91
- ’92
- ’93
- ’94
- ’95
- ’96
- ’97
- ’98
- ’99
- ’00
- ’01
- ’02
- ’03
- ’04
- ’05
- ’06
- ’07
- ’08
- ’09
- ’10
- ’11
- ’12
- ’13
- ’14
- ’15
- ’16
- ’17
- ’18
- ’19
- ’20
- ’21
- ’22
- ’23
- ’24
- ’25
- ’26
The government was funded by three back-to-back C.R.s for the entire 2025 fiscal year. At 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, the last of those resolutions will expire, and if Congress is still deadlocked, a shutdown will begin.
