Issue Brief 14-33
October 3, 2014
Summary 

Congress is on recess until after the November elections. While it was unable to finalize a budget for fiscal year (FY) 2015, it passed a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government running until December 11, 2014. The CR did not address all programs set to expire on October 1, 2014, but it provided short-term extensions for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Export-Import Bank, and the Internet tax moratorium. In the meantime, congressional appropriators plan to work on an omnibus appropriations bill to be considered during the lame-duck session, but the timing and whether an agreement will be reached or approved by Congress remains uncertain.

Looking into next year, a host of programs covering all major program areas are set to expire. These are mandatory-funded programs that require action by Congress to continue, rather than discretionary programs that can be funded through annual appropriations despite lacking authorization. In addition, Congress will again need to raise or suspend the debt ceiling.

This Issue Brief identifies expired or expiring programs and highlights important deadlines for those programs. The table below summarizes the deadlines. Table 1 provides funding details.