Money & budgets
regular appropriations bills
The twelve annual bills funding federal agencies. Congress has enacted all twelve on time only a handful of times since the modern process began in 1977.
In full
Each bill covers a group of agencies and must be enacted before the fiscal year begins on October 1. When they are not, Congress passes a continuing resolution or the affected agencies shut down. Bundling several into an omnibus or a minibus is now the norm, which reduces the scrutiny any one of them receives.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.