The failure of Congress to pass its spending bills ahead of this year’s October 1 deadline is hardly the first time things have gotten to this point.
According to a new study just released by the Pew Research Center, Congress has only passed its required appropriations bills four times in the last nearly half century: in fiscal years 1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997.
And even in those rare instances, Congress was still, for the most part, late in approving a budget blueprint that is designed to be completed before the actual spending bills are completed.
Since fiscal year 1997, says the study, “Congress has never passed more than five of its 12 regular appropriations bills on time.”
In fact, says the study, “It’s done considerably less than that. In 13 of the past 15 fiscal years, including this year, lawmakers have not passed a single spending bill by October 1.”
Trying to stave off such deadlines, Congress in recent years has increasingly turned to the tool of continuing resolutions. Such resolutions, notes the Pew study, “typically extend funding levels from the prior fiscal year, but only for existing programs.”
The resolutions have on some occasions lasted as little as only a single day, “and as long as the rest of the fiscal year.”
Resulting government shutdowns have, not incidentally, also provided great theater, with the standoff between Democrat President Bill Clinton in late 1995 and early 1996 and a Republican-majority Congress lasting for a combined 26 days.
Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich later remarked that the shutdown ended up being a good thing because it eventually led to a balanced budget deal for fiscal 1997, setting in motion a series of balanced budgets for the next four years.
At the same time, Gingrich, in a written column published some years after the 1995 standoff, said that public opinion surveys in the months after the shutdown blamed Republicans for what had happened.
“Because we were so openly pushing for a big change and Clinton was so willing to be reasonable,” said Gingrich, “the American people naturally attributed the shutdowns to us and gave Clinton good marks for at least trying to negotiate.”
October 3, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of the National Archives
