The United States federal government is funded through December 11, 2026, under a short-term continuing resolution signed by President Donald Trump on September 2, 2026 (P.L. 119-103), avoiding an October 1 shutdown. The Senate passed the resolution 90-6 on August 8, and the House cleared it 370-48 on September 1.
However, full-year fiscal year 2027 (FY27) appropriations remain unresolved, and Congress must pass 12 regular appropriations bills or another extension before December 11, 2026. Until then, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 holds most programs at fiscal 2026 levels.
What is a Continuing Resolution?
As the name suggests, a continuing resolution (CR) is a temporary stopgap bill passed by Congress to keep the federal government open when a formal annual budget has not been approved. Instead of granting a new budget, the CR dictates that federal agencies must continue operating at last year’s funding levels. However, to prevent agencies from abusing the temporary money, the law also enforces strict rules on new starts, production rates, and anomalies.
As a result, federal agencies cannot begin any project, program, procurement, or activity that was not already funded and active in the previous fiscal year. Moreover, Congress uses CRs to maintain the status quo while appropriations remain unresolved. This breaks down to some rules: “No New Stuff,” “No Speeding Up,” and “There Are Exceptions”
The first rule ensures agencies aren’t spending money on brand-new initiatives that lawmakers haven’t formally debated or authorized for the New Year. Put differently, if the program didn’t exist before, an agency can’t build it, buy it, or hire for it.
The second part is meant to address manufacturing and defense procurement. Besides not buying “new stuff” not previously authorized by Congress, agencies cannot increase the manufacturing or production rate of an item above the previous year’s approved level. Agencies are further barred from starting new multi-year purchase contracts. Because CRs dole out money in small, time-rationed increments, they don’t allow production to accelerate or lock the government into multi-year commitments that require massive up-front funding.
One way to look at that is if the Pentagon was authorized to acquire 10 new fighter jets a year under the old budget, it cannot use the CR funds to ramp up and buy 15 jets a year, even if that was the plan for the new fiscal year.
As for the Exceptional Backdoors or anomalies, there is some flexibility. An anomaly is an explicitly written exception baked into the CR text that allows bypassing the strict rules above. For example, if a program could literally break, run out of money, or fail a critical mission under the CR constraints, Congress and the White House can negotiate a specific “anomaly” clause in the text of the bill. That could include a “new start” exception, allowing an agency to spend money faster than the prorated daily limit, and even adjusting funding to match an urgent crisis (e.g., emergency disaster relief).
Some have suggested that anomalies could be described as the “break glass in case of emergency” clauses in a CR.
CR and the Pentagon
The Pentagon will receive funding at its previous levels. Still, it will not change the text or policy mandates of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets defense policy and recommends spending limits.
The CR will therefore prohibit the Department of War from starting new programs or ramping up production rates, even if the pending NDAA authorizes or encourages them.
Likewise, the CR freezes money at prior-year funding levels and allocations, preventing the military from shifting funds into newly prioritized accounts authorized in the new NDAA.
What Pentagon Programs Could Stall?
As part of the FY27 CR, several high-profile military programs will not be able to move forward. Key among these is the proposed Trump-class guided-missile battleship (BBGN). The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) explicitly requested a $1 billion “anomaly” in advanced procurement funding to initiate the United States Navy’s planned $17.5 billion program. However, the United States Senate explicitly rejected this request in its stopgap bill, cutting off the necessary initial funding and stalling the program’s planned timeline.
The broader “Golden Fleet,” which called for the U.S. Navy to procure 34 manned ships and five uncrewed platforms, could also be impacted as the CR bars new construction contracts.
Shipbuilding programs that could face further delays include the Constellation-class frigate (FFX), the Medium Landing Ships (LSM) and auxiliary vessels, and the unmanned surface/undersea vehicles.
The United States CR also rejected special procurement exceptions intended to fast-track and restock high-end munitions heavily depleted during recent Middle East operations, including PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability-3) interceptors, Tomahawk cruise missiles, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), and variants of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3).
What It Means for Cleared Workers
How a CR affects cleared workers depends on whether a cleared contractor relies on a brand-new program starting up; if so, the project will likely be delayed until a full budget passes. In addition, as budgets are short-term and uncertain, defense and intelligence agencies often implement temporary hiring freezes.
That can delay onboarding for newly cleared personnel or slow the processing of security clearances for open requisitions. Moreover, existing cleared employees often face uncertainty regarding project continuity, overtime allowances, or contract renewals, which can strain team morale.
For contractors, burn rate restrictions may require careful spending management, and agencies may limit contractor hours or slow billable work to ensure funds don’t run out before the CR expires.
Those in the cleared workforce may also want to target roles on programs already funded for sustainment and be prepared for delayed start dates.
