Handbook·Federal government

The federal budget process

Explainer·Verified 2026-07-10

The answer

The federal budget is not one document Congress votes on. It runs on two tracks that frequently fail to finish on time, and when they fail, a stopgap called a continuing resolution fills the gap instead of an actual budget. The folk-model-breaking fact: fiscal year 2026 began on October 1, 2025, with zero of the 12 required appropriations bills enacted, and the resulting standoff produced a 43-day government shutdown, the longest in US history. Continuing resolutions, meant to be rare emergency bridges, have become the normal way federal agencies get funded most years.

How it actually works

The process starts each February when the president submits a budget request compiled by the Office of Management and Budget, a nonbinding proposal, not law.¹ The House and Senate Budget Committees then draft a concurrent budget resolution setting topline spending and revenue targets for the next five to ten years. Because it is a concurrent resolution rather than a bill, it never goes to the president and cannot be filibustered in the Senate.² That resolution can include reconciliation instructions, directing specific committees to write legislation hitting budget targets, which also bypasses the Senate's 60-vote cloture threshold and only needs a simple majority.²

Separately, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, split into 12 subcommittees covering areas like defense and agriculture, draft the 12 actual appropriations bills that fund government operations, which do require the president's signature.¹ When October 1 arrives without all 12 signed into law, Congress passes a continuing resolution to keep agencies funded at prior-year levels temporarily. For FY2026, none of the 12 bills were enacted by the October 1, 2025 deadline, and the resulting 43-day shutdown, the longest ever, ended only when a continuing resolution was signed November 12, 2025, funding most of government through January 30, 2026 at FY2025 levels, while bundling in three of the twelve full-year bills covering Agriculture, the Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-VA.³ The other nine bills remained unresolved heading toward the next deadline.⁴

Who holds the power

Congress holds the actual appropriations power, since only Congress can enact the bills that become law. The president's request is advisory, and the reconciliation and continuing-resolution mechanisms are procedural tools Congress uses on itself to manage its own supermajority requirements. The president's signature or veto is still required on actual appropriations bills and continuing resolutions, giving the executive real leverage in any standoff.

Reconciliation is optional and does not happen every year. It is a tool used specifically when a majority wants to pass major tax or spending changes without needing 60 votes, and is separate from the annual appropriations cycle that actually keeps agencies funded.

Where you come in

Appropriations status is tracked in real time and publicly on Congress.gov's appropriations status table and by nonpartisan trackers like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, making it possible to see, months in advance, which of the 12 bills are stalled and heading toward a shutdown deadline. If a stalled bill affects a program you care about, contacting your representative or senators before the deadline is covered in how to contact your member of Congress.

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