HR9770-119

What This Bill Does

The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2027 would provide temporary fiscal year 2027 funding for federal departments and programs covered by all 12 regular fiscal year 2026 appropriations laws. Unless a fiscal year 2027 appropriation is enacted sooner, the continuing authority would expire on December 4, 2026. Agencies generally would operate at fiscal year 2026 rates, under the same authorities and conditions, and would have to take only the most limited funding actions needed to continue existing work.

The bill generally bars agencies from starting or resuming projects that lacked fiscal year 2026 funding. The Defense Department could not begin new production, raise production rates above fiscal year 2026 levels, start unsupported programs, or initiate multiyear procurements using advance procurement funds for economic-order quantities. Programs that normally distribute large amounts at the beginning of a fiscal year could not make those distributions or grants when doing so would constrain Congress's final funding choices.

Entitlements and other mandatory payments funded through fiscal year 2026 appropriations, including Food and Nutrition Act programs, would continue at rates needed to maintain current-law program levels. Agencies could apportion personnel funds at rates needed to avoid furloughs, but only after reducing or deferring non-personnel administrative costs. Prior emergency and disaster-relief designations would receive the budget treatment specified in the bill, and continuing rescissions would be limited to the lesser of the previously specified amount or the available balance. OMB would report those rescissions to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

The bill includes targeted exceptions. WIC funding could be apportioned to maintain participation. Agricultural and livestock mandatory reporting authorities, National Flood Insurance Program authorities, and specified Social Security Act family-assistance activities would continue through December 4. The SBA Business Loans Program Account could meet increased demand for 7(a), secondary-market, 504, and small-business investment guarantees. The District of Columbia could spend local funds at its fiscal year 2027 local budget rate. FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund and federal wildfire accounts could operate at rates needed for response, recovery, and suppression.

Indian Health Service would receive additional operating rates of $75.774 million for health services and $8.296 million for health facilities to staff and operate facilities opened, renovated, or expanded in fiscal years 2022, 2026, and 2027. The bill also appropriates the sums necessary to continue specified Temporary Assistance for Needy Families activities and territorial assistance. It provides two $174,000 death gratuities, one to Alfredia Scott and one to the heirs of Lindsey O. Graham, as identified in the engrossed text, and blocks a congressional cost-of-living adjustment during the covered period.

This is a short-term bridge, not a full-year budget. Spending under it would be charged to the applicable full-year account after later appropriations become law, and most funding levels are rates of operation rather than new annual totals.

Who Benefits and How

Federal program beneficiaries, grant recipients, contractors, and employees avoid an immediate lapse in covered operations and payments. WIC participants, recipients of mandatory benefits, families served by continuing assistance programs, disaster survivors, communities facing wildfires, patients using newly opened Indian Health Service facilities, and small businesses seeking federally guaranteed financing receive targeted continuity. District of Columbia residents benefit from continued local-government spending, while the named congressional survivors receive the specified gratuities.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal taxpayers finance the temporary operations, additional Indian Health Service amounts, family-assistance funding, and gratuities. Agencies must operate under a short deadline, preserve congressional discretion, limit new activity, defer administrative expenses before using furlough-avoidance flexibility, and later reconcile spending to full-year accounts. Defense contractors and other vendors seeking new projects or higher production cannot receive those commitments under the bridge. States, foreign recipients, and grantees may receive delayed initial distributions. OMB must track and report continuing rescissions, and program administrators must manage several specialized extensions.

Key Provisions

• Continues fiscal year 2026 funding rates across the 12 appropriations areas.
• Ends temporary funding on December 4, 2026, or when superseded sooner.
• Prohibits most new projects and specified new Defense production or procurement.
• Limits high initial distributions and requires minimal continuation actions.
• Continues mandatory benefits and permits personnel funding needed to avoid furloughs.
• Maintains WIC participation and expands SBA loan-guarantee apportionment when needed.
• Supports FEMA disaster response, wildfire suppression, and District of Columbia services.
• Provides additional operating rates totaling $84.07 million for Indian Health Service facilities.
• Continues specified family-assistance, agricultural-reporting, and flood-insurance authorities.
• Provides two $174,000 death gratuities and blocks a congressional cost-of-living adjustment.