Sponsors
The bill ensures workers and services keep functioning during funding gaps by authorizing automatic Treasury payments, at the cost of likely unplanned taxpayer outlays, potential retroactive liabilities, and weakened incentives for timely appropriations.
Federal employees, government contractors who support them, and active-duty service members assigned to support agencies continue receiving pay and benefits/allowances during agency funding gaps, avoiding immediate financial hardship for those workers.
Agencies can maintain workforce continuity during funding lapses, reducing the risk of service interruptions and minimizing disruption to public-facing projects and government operations.
Taxpayers may face additional unplanned and potentially sizable Treasury outlays — including retroactive payments — because the Treasury automatically provides funds before Congress enacts appropriations.
Automatic availability of funds could reduce pressure on Congress to pass full-year appropriations on time, making fiscal standoffs more likely to persist.
Using this authority complicates budget accounting because obligations charged under it must later be reallocated to regular appropriations, creating administrative and auditing complications.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Automatically funds pay, allowances, benefits, and routine payments for federal employees, supporting contractors, and active-duty military when an agency lacks appropriations, retroactive to Sept 30, 2025.
Introduced October 28, 2025 by John Neely Kennedy · Last progress October 28, 2025
Automatically provides whatever money is needed from the Treasury to pay federal employees, contractors who directly support those employees, and active-duty military whenever an agency lacks interim or full-year appropriations for a fiscal year. The payments cover regular pay, allowances, pay differentials, benefits, and other routine payments, and the authority applies to FY2026 and later years and is retroactive to September 30, 2025.