Congress faces tight government funding deadline upon November return

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

Four days into fiscal year 2027, Congress is already behind schedule on funding the government for the next 12 months.

Lawmakers punted the Oct. 1 government shutdown deadline to Dec. 11 by passing a continuing resolution. Yet neither the House nor Senate made any progress during September on the 12 annual appropriations bills, none of which have passed both chambers and only three of which have passed the House.

While the House would normally be in session this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., released his chamber two weeks early — despite protests from members who wanted to tackle AI safety legislation and advance a second Epstein files discharge petition.

The Senate has also left town, despite failing to approve the three House-passed government funding bills and send them to the president’s desk or even bring them to the floor for consideration.

Congress is in recess until after the midterm elections, leaving lawmakers extraordinarily little time when they return to finish the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process.

It is also unclear how election outcomes could influence appropriations negotiations, which have imploded multiple times during the 119th Congress, resulting in record-long government shutdowns.

Though Congress is supposed to renew and update funding levels for all federal agencies via 12 annual appropriations bills, it rarely does so on schedule.

Lawmakers usually pass at least a short-term funding stopgap to buy more time, sometimes passing multiple stopgaps to cover an entire year, as they did for fiscal year 2025.

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