Sponsors (3)
The bill shifts the federal fiscal year to the calendar year to improve predictability and coordination, but achieves that benefit at the cost of short-term implementation expenses and potential misalignment headaches for state and local budgets.
Federal agencies, Congress, and state/local governments will shift to a calendar-year (Jan 1) fiscal year, making federal budget timing predictable and easier to coordinate with other governments and private-sector planning.
Federal agencies will have a short transition continuing budget for Oct 1–Dec 31, 2026, ensuring legal authority to operate during the change and reducing the immediate risk of funding gaps or government disruptions.
OMB is directed to issue rules and propose follow-on legislation to manage the transition, which should reduce administrative confusion and improve implementation outcomes for agencies and partner governments.
Federal, state, and local agencies will incur planning, reporting, and IT/systems transition costs that could divert staff time and resources from programs and services during the changeover.
Taxpayers may bear short-term additional administrative and implementation costs, including possible legislative work to harmonize statutes and appropriations timing.
State and local governments whose fiscal years remain Oct–Sept could face misaligned grant schedules and cash-flow timing issues, complicating budgeting and grant management at the subnational level.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Moves the federal fiscal year to January 1–December 31 starting in 2027 and establishes a short Oct–Dec 2026 transition period with required planning.
Official title: To change the calendar period of the Federal fiscal year.
Introduced September 26, 2025 by Michael R. Turner · Last progress September 26, 2025
Changes the federal government's fiscal year to run from January 1 through December 31 starting in 2027 and requires a short transition budget and planning for the three-month period Oct–Dec 2026. Orders the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue rules and propose any needed legislation to convert existing statutory references and ensure agencies can move to the new calendar-year fiscal schedule. Creates conversion rules so laws that now reference October 1/September 30 will instead reference January 1/December 31 for fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, and amends the U.S. Code to reflect the new fiscal year end date.