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How Many Continuing Resolutions Do You Remember?


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Every once in a while, you read something that amazes you.  In this case, the Aerospace Industries Association provided something special in its letter to Congress complaining about a needless annual event.  See what you think.

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Lurching from continuing resolution to continuing resolution, as Congress has done nearly 50 times over the last 12 years, has created an environment of instability and unpredictability for businesses that work with the U.S. government.  (Emphasis added.)

 

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  • bob7947 changed the title to How Many Continuing Resolutions Do You Remember?

What is most interesting to this gray hair is that in the 1975 to 1976 time frame the congress went through the effort to change the fiscal year end from June 30 to September 30 because in their then wisdom it would give them more time to deal with spending issues and approve a budget without continuing resolutions.   Congress is its own worst enemy!

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46595

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Continuing resolutions, unlike government shutdowns, are routine. The following is from a Congressional Research Service report published in 2000:

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Continuing resolutions date from at least the late 1870s, and have been a regular part of the annual appropriations process in the post World War II period. In fact, with the exception of FY1989, FY1995, and FY1997, at least one continuing resolution has been enacted for each fiscal year since 1954. (However, the two FY1977 continuing resolutions did not provide funding for an entire regular appropriations bill. Instead, they provided funding for only selected activities.)

Until the early 1970s, continuing resolutions principally were limited in scope and duration, and rarely exceeded a page or two in length. They were used almost exclusively to provide temporary funding at a minimum, formulaic level, and contained few provisions unrelated to the interim funding.

Beginning in the early 1970s, conflict between the President and Congress over major budget priorities, triggered in part by rapidly increasing deficits, greatly increased the difficulty of reaching final agreement on regular appropriations acts. This conflict led to protracted delay in their enactment. Continuing resolutions, because they historically have been viewed as "must-pass" measures in view of the constitutional and statutory imperatives, became a major battleground for the resolution of budgetary and other conflicts. Consequently, the nature, scope, and duration of continuing resolutions began to change.

Footnotes omitted.

See "Continuing Appropriations Acts: Brief Overview of Recent Practices," 2000. Google it.

Democracy is messy. Always has been, always will be, and it's getting worse every year in "democracies" all over the world. Sometimes it just doesn't work.

The question is, Why? Does the problem lie with the nature of democracy or with the people being governed?

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This part of the quote really surprised me

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In fact, with the exception of FY1989, FY1995, and FY1997, at least one continuing resolution has been enacted for each fiscal year since 1954. (However, the two FY1977 continuing resolutions did not provide funding for an entire regular appropriations bill. Instead, they provided funding for only selected activities.)

I didn’t pay attention to CRs until Ronald Reagan was President and there were shutdowns.  There were lots of doubt about Federal employees being paid

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I would think that something used so frequently over a dozen years is essentially now the predictable norm, rather than the exception.  Personally, I like Continuing Resolutions.  Under Fiscal Law, you generally need both Authorization and Appropriation to expend public funds.  Continuing Resolution Authority typically takes care of both (e.g., authorized to spend at prior year or some other level for those purposes previously authorized, yada yada yada...).

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