The deadline to pass permanent spending bills, or a continuing resolution, is March 14. For months, Congress has been undecided on what to do.
WASHINGTON—Congress is running out of time to release a plan to fund government before the shutdown date of March 14.
Since Dec. 20, 2024, the government has operated under a “continuing resolution“ or ”CR”—a law that authorizes funding temporarily, based on levels set for the previous fiscal year.
The CR was the second of this fiscal year. In September, Congress passed the first such measure after it could not enact permanent spending bills in time before the deadline on Sept. 30. The latest CR set the funding expiry date on March 14, after which the government will shut down if a permanent funding bill, or another CR, isn’t passed.
The frequent “shutdown” cliffs have become a normal feature of American politics.
Congress last enacted permanent spending bills before the deadline in Fiscal Year 1998, after which it has always been late. However, it is usually able to pass permanent spending bills by March—around six months into the new fiscal year, after which the cycle of CRs continues.
This time, Congress may miss even this deadline, thereby prompting the passage of a third CR that may cover the remainder of the fiscal year—meaning that the whole year is funded by CRs rather than permanent bills, which would not have funding structured to support the current president’s agenda.
“’I’m certainly not interested in sending a bill to the President that he’s not willing to sign,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who is leading the effort to draft permanent bills for Fiscal Year 2025, told reporters on Feb. 24.
Since the 119th Congress, where Republicans have slim majorities in both houses, was seated on Jan. 3, House Republicans have begun anew the drafting process, to write spending bills informed by the Trump administration’s priorities.
Negotiations about the content of those bills are ongoing, and no proposals or plans have been released.
By Arjun Singh
