Continuing resolution grants: what a CR means for your award
By Wesley Stevens, Founder of Quillify. Congress. November 2, 2026. Read the source.
How does a continuing resolution affect federal grants?
A continuing resolution funds federal agencies at the prior year’s rate until a set date. The current one, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, runs through December 11, 2026. Existing awards keep paying. New programs wait for a full-year budget, and many agencies hold their largest funding notices until it passes.
What a continuing resolution is
Congress passes a continuing resolution when the twelve annual spending bills are not law by October 1, the first day of the federal fiscal year. The current one is H.R. 6500. Section 101 funds the projects and activities agencies ran in fiscal year 2026 “at a rate for operations” set by the 2026 spending laws, under the same authority and conditions.
Section 104 is the no-new-starts rule. Money under the act cannot be used “to initiate or resume any project or activity” that had no funding in fiscal year 2026. Congress writes its exceptions in by name, in sections that open with “notwithstanding section 104.”
Section 106 sets the end date. Funding lasts until Congress passes the full-year bill that covers a program, or until December 11, 2026, whichever comes first. Under section 107, whatever agencies spend in the meantime is charged to that full-year appropriation once it becomes law.
Section 157 of the same law bars the Office of Management and Budget from finalizing its proposed Uniform Guidance rewrite through December 11, 2026. What OMB proposed.
Existing awards and continuation funding
An award already made keeps its terms. Its money was obligated from an earlier appropriation, so the continuing resolution leaves it in place. Drawdowns, reports, and the work itself continue on the schedule in your award.
The next budget period of a multiyear award is where a continuing resolution can show up. Section 110 tells agencies to take “only the most limited funding action” the act permits. A continuation that comes due during the CR can arrive as a partial award, with the balance added once the full-year bill passes.
Section 109 sets a limit for programs that would normally send out a large share of their money at the start of the year to states, grantees, or others. Those programs cannot make high early payments or full distributions under the CR. No grants can be awarded from them that “would impinge on final funding prerogatives.”
New funding opportunities during a CR
Agencies can still post funding notices during a continuing resolution for programs that ran in fiscal year 2026. Section 104 rules out programs that would start fresh, so a brand-new program waits for the full-year bill.
Many agencies hold their largest competitions until the full-year bill sets each program’s final amount. Others post on their usual calendar and note that awards depend on the availability of funds.
Quillify reads new funding announcements as agencies post them and matches each one to what your organization does. When an agency opens a round during the CR, you see it that week.
If funding lapses
If December 11 passes with no new law, funding lapses for the agencies still running on the CR. The Antideficiency Act (31 U.S.C. 1341) bars agencies from obligating money before Congress appropriates it. New awards and continuation awards from those agencies wait until funding resumes.
Agency staff whose work is not excepted are furloughed during a lapse, so program officers and grants staff may be unavailable to answer questions or approve changes. Each agency publishes a lapse plan that says which activities continue.
Money already obligated to your award was appropriated before the lapse. Whether you can draw it down during one depends on the agency’s payment system and its lapse plan, so check both before December 11. Treat every posted application deadline as still in force unless the agency announces a change.
What to do this month
Check your budget period dates. If a new budget period starts before December 11, ask your program officer whether to plan for a partial continuation.
Keep applying to programs that ran in 2026. Those programs can post during the CR. An application drafted now is ready the day the round opens.
Build on money that runs on its own schedule. Private foundations pay out every year, whatever happens in Congress. Quillify searches 129,000+ foundations and 5,000+ open grants together. Federal grants for 2027: what’s settled and what’s still open. How to replace federal funding that was cut.
What you can do today
More policy news: NIH webinar notices, October 26 to 28, 2026. The 2026 proposal to trim HHS block grant regulations. The 2026 final rule trimming child support program regulations. USDA SPUR guaranteed loans for FY 2027: who qualifies and how to apply. SBA surety bond guarantee fees: what changes on November 30, 2026.
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