A System in Disarray

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 moved the start of the fiscal year from July 1 to Oct. 1 in an effort to improve the chances that Congress and the president would approve all of the government's spending bills on time. Since the act was fully implemented in 1977, there have been only four years in which that has happened. When bills are not passed, Congress turns to interim measures called continuing resolutions, which typically fund government agencies at the previous year's level.

[Chart showing the number of annual spending bills approved on time from 1997 to present.]

SOURCE: Congressional Resource Service | GRAPHIC: Karen Yourish, The Washington Post - March 22, 2007

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