Trump Signs FY27 Stopgap, Pushing Budget Fight Past November Midterms

WASHINGTON, President Trump signed a short-term government funding bill into law on Sept. 2, buying Congress roughly ten weeks to negotiate fiscal year 2027 appropriations it couldn't finish before the October deadline.

The measure, formally the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 (H.R. 6500), funds federal agencies at largely current spending levels through Dec. 11. According to a summary reviewed by ASTHO, the House passed the Senate-amended bill 370-48 on Sept. 1; the Senate had already cleared it 90-6 in August.

According to a tracking report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the House passed the continuing resolution on Sept. 1, with the president's signature following the next day, removing the immediate threat of a shutdown as FY27 begins Oct. 1.

Leaders in both chambers made plain they don't expect full-year spending bills before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole and ranking member Rosa DeLauro said they want to wrap up FY27 bills when Congress returns from those elections, according to an update published by the National Council on State and Local Disability Policy.

The lame-duck schedule that follows is tight. The Dec. 11 deadline, as noted in an analysis by the Computing Research Association, creates compressed pressure for negotiators to close out spending bills or face yet another stopgap heading into 2027.

The Senate side faces deeper structural problems. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not released or marked up any of its twelve FY27 bills, the NCSD policy update noted. The extended absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell has compounded the difficulty, leaving Republicans without a functional majority on the full committee, according to that same update.

Senate appropriators had been expected to begin FY27 markups in June but postponed after McConnell's continued absence sidelined the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, according to reporting by Akin Gump's appropriations practice. The death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., created additional vacancies in committee ratios, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The House is further along. All 12 annual spending bills have cleared committee, with three passed by the full chamber, the NCSD update said. But the gap between what the House and Senate are prepared to spend on defense versus nondefense programs remains the central sticking point.

The Pentagon is already feeling the strain. A report by Breaking Defense noted that the Defense Department will remain under a continuing resolution until early December, and quoted former Pentagon comptroller Elaine McCusker: "The financial challenges will only get worse until a final appropriations bill and supplemental are passed."

Under a continuing resolution, the Defense Department cannot fund new program starts or increase production rates on existing programs unless Congress writes in a specific exception, known as an anomaly, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. CSIS also noted that since fiscal year 2000, the Defense Department has started 21 of 27 fiscal years under a continuing resolution or a government shutdown.

The bill carries at least two notable policy riders. According to an analysis by the National Association of Counties, the CR temporarily blocks an Office of Management and Budget proposed rule that would have overhauled how federal grants are administered. That block runs only through Dec. 11 and applies solely to OMB, according to the Computing Research Association's tracking.

Congress could complete some or all of the FY27 bills during the lame-duck session, extend the current resolution into 2027, or risk another shutdown, according to the ASTHO summary. None of those scenarios depend solely on the two chambers agreeing on numbers; the White House's request for roughly 42 percent more in defense spending than the current baseline would need to be reconciled against nondefense cuts opposed by Senate Democrats.

Sources cited:
- ASTHO, Summary of FY27 Continuing Resolution (https://www.astho.org/advocacy/federal-government-affairs/leg-alerts/2026/summary-of-fy27-continuing-resolution/)
- Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Upcoming Congressional Fiscal Policy Deadlines (https://www.crfb.org/blogs/upcoming-congressional-fiscal-policy-deadlines)
- National Council on State and Local Disability Policy, Federal Policy Update Sept. 4, 2026 (https://ncsddc.org/federal-policy-update-september-4-2026/)
- Computing Research Association, FY27 Appropriations Update (https://cra.org/govaffairs/blog/2026/09/fy27-appropriations-update-congress-passes-continuing-resolution-punts-fy27-to-december/)
- Breaking Defense, Pentagon FY26 Operational Costs (https://breakingdefense.com/2026/09/what-options-does-the-pentagon-have-to-cover-its-mounting-fy26-operational-costs/)
- Center for Strategic and International Studies, Tracking FY27 Defense Appropriations (https://www.csis.org/analysis/tracking-fy-2027-defense-appropriations-reconciliation-and-supplemental-request)
- National Association of Counties, Congress Passes Short-Term Funding Bill (https://www.naco.org/news/senate-passes-bill-fund-government-through-december-11-and-delay-omb-rule)
- Akin Gump, Congress Returns While the FY2027 Funding Clock Ticks (https://www.akingump.com/en/insights/blogs/the-approps-drop/congress-returns-while-the-fy2027-funding-clock-ticks)
- National Low Income Housing Coalition, House to Consider Continuing Resolution (https://nlihc.org/resource/house-consider-continuing-resolution-week-extending-funding-federal-programs-until-after)