Sponsors (4)
The bill keeps government services and critical benefits running during funding gaps and clarifies budget scoring, but does so at the cost of weakening incentives for timely appropriations and introducing fiscal, accounting, and administrative risks that could shift costs onto taxpayers and complicate budgeting and oversight.
Federal agencies, and the state and local governments they fund, can keep core programs and services running during funding gaps because prior-year funding continues in 14‑day increments, reducing immediate service disruptions and furloughs.
Mandatory entitlement and nutrition programs (e.g., SNAP) continue at levels needed to maintain current-law benefits during a lapse, ensuring low-income individuals and families keep critical food and benefit support.
Limits on large initial disbursements, constrained transfer authority, and a requirement that agencies take only minimal actions (and not restart activities Congress withheld) help preserve congressional funding prerogatives and reduce the risk that agencies preempt final appropriations.
Automatic continuing appropriations reduce the immediate pressure on Congress to pass regular appropriations, which could prolong funding lapses or make shutdowns more frequent or drawn out.
Expenditures made under this authority may be charged to later-enacted appropriations, meaning taxpayers could ultimately pay for costs incurred during lapses and complicating year-end accounting.
Treating these amounts as discretionary could worsen near-term deficit totals or trigger budget enforcement mechanisms, affecting fiscal policy choices and possibly prompting cuts or offsets elsewhere.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Provides automatic, short-term continuing appropriations (14-day renewable blocks) to keep prior-year funded programs running during funding lapses, with limits and exclusions.
Official title: Eliminate Shutdowns Act
Introduced September 15, 2025 by Ron Johnson · Last progress September 15, 2025
Creates an automatic short-term continuing appropriation that keeps federal programs, projects, and activities funded at prior-year rates when Congress fails to pass new appropriations, using initial 14-calendar-day funding blocks that automatically renew while a lapse continues. The measure sets limits and guardrails — including exclusions where other law forbids continuation, caps on intra-agency transfers, rules to avoid large one-time disbursements, and special handling for mandatory entitlements and nutrition programs — and requires budget scoring rules to treat these funds for baseline and enforcement purposes. The automatic authority takes effect September 30, 2025, and is designed to prevent shutdowns by sustaining operations temporarily under the same authorities and conditions as the previous year, while preserving congressional control over new policy starts and funding decisions once appropriations are enacted.