Overview of the FY2016 Continuing Resolution (H.R. 719)

Summary

The purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of the FY2016 continuing appropriations in H.R. 719. None of the FY2016 regular appropriations bills were enacted by the start of the fiscal year (October 1, 2015). On September 30, 2015, H.R. 719, a continuing resolution (CR) for FY2016, was signed into law by the President (P.L. 114-53).

The CR for FY2016 covers all 12 regular appropriations bills by providing continuing budget authority for projects and activities funded in FY2015 by that fiscal year’s regular appropriations acts, with some exceptions. It includes both budget authority that is subject to the statutory discretionary spending limits on defense and nondefense spending and also budget authority that is effectively exempt from those limits, such as that designated as for “Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism.”

Funding under the terms of the CR is effective October 1, 2015, through December 11, 2015—roughly the first 10 weeks of the fiscal year.

The CR generally provides budget authority for FY2015 projects and activities at the rate they were funded during that fiscal year. Most projects and activities funded in the CR are subject to an across-the-board decrease of less than 1% (0.2108%).

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the total amount of annualized budget authority for regular appropriations in the FY2016 CR that is subject to the statutory discretionary spending limits is $1,016.582 billion. When spending is included in the CBO estimate that is effectively not subject to those limits, the total amount of annualized budget authority in the CR is $1,099.962 billion.

In addition to the general provisions that establish the coverage, duration, and rate, CRs usually include provisions that are specific to certain agencies, accounts, or programs. These include provisions that designate exceptions to the formula and purpose for which any referenced funding is extended (referred to as “anomalies”) and provisions that have the effect of creating new law or changing existing law (often used to renew expiring provisions of law). The CR includes a number of such provisions, each of which is briefly summarized in this report. CRS appropriations process experts for each of these provisions are listed in Table 1.

For general information on the content of CRs and historical data on CRs enacted between FY1977 and FY2015, see CRS Report R42647, Continuing Resolutions: Overview of Components and Recent Practices, by Jessica Tollestrup.

For information on the FY2016 appropriations process, see CRS Report R44062, Congressional Action on FY2016 Appropriations Measures, by Jessica Tollestrup.