Operating Under a Continuing Resolution: A Limited Assessment of Effects on Defense Procurement Contract Awards
Abstract
Under the normal legislative process, Congress completes 12 regular appropriation bills each fiscal year to fund the activities of federal agencies. When Congress is unable to pass these appropriation bills before the beginning of a fiscal year, a continuing appropriation act (or continuing resolution [CR]) can be enacted as a joint resolution to provide stopgap funding at a specified rate and for a specified period of time. In recent years, operating under a CR at the start of a fiscal year has become the norm for federal agencies. There is general agreement among those who have studied them that CRs, because they limit government agencies ability to engage in activities for which authority has not been granted by law, cause inefficiency in government operations and therefore adds costs. This research report provides an overview of issues associated with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) operations under a CR and performs a limited assessment of whether particular consequences that DoD and its leadership cite as occurring broadly as a result of operating under CRs have actually been occurring. In particular, the report explores whether there is evidence that delays in making procurement awards for weapons and cost increases resulting from those delays are occurring broadly and are associated with CRs because of CRs constraints on funding and on initiating new activities. The results of our analysis are mixed. They do not provide strong evidence that CRs are causing delays and cost increases; because of their limitations, however, our results also do not provide definitive evidence that such negative effects are not occurring. The report documents preliminary research and should be considered only a first, limited step in addressing the important and broad policy issue of the consequences of operating under a CR rather than under a regular appropriation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1086181
Entities
People
- J. Michael Gilmore
- Stephanie Young
Organizations
- RAND Corporation