Temporary Funding a Common Maneuver

If spending bills aren’t finished by the election, Congress most likely would resort to the often-used step of passing one or more short-term funding bills called a “continuing resolution” to continue agency funding and prevent a budget-induced shutdown. In the most recent lame-duck session, in 2002, Congress was unable to resolve spending bills including one carrying the 2003 federal raise, causing a 3.1 percent raise to kick in by default and later be overridden by a 4.1 percent raise. The same sequence occurred last year when Congress worked until late in December. Any lame-duck session this year is expected to be relatively short, meaning the raise would be settled in this calendar year. However, such sessions can be highly unpredictable.