Grants Office March Insights: What the Continuous Resolution Passing Means for Grant Funding

On March 15, a continuous resolution was passed and signed into law to avoid a government shutdown which allows the federal government to maintain a similar funding level to last year for the remainder of this fiscal year.

The purpose of this blog post will outline what this means for the next several months with regards to grant funding. Ultimately, the continuous resolution preserves grant funding, but it does potentially give latitude to the current administration for some spending, although it’s unclear what exactly will be changed, if anything.

Continuous resolutions do not feature conference reports and/or explanatory statements that typically accompany whenever a traditional omnibus or a set of appropriation bills are passed. Many programs are hard-wired into the budget legislation such as funds from the Department of Homeland Security like the Transit Security Grant Program, State Homeland Security Program, or Emergency Preparedness Grant Program. Historically, the budget will provide a general total for a program or agency, and then Congress will detail how funds should be spent on either explanatory statements or conference reports. For example, nearly the entire allocation to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is fleshed out in additional documents.

In these cases, the administration will still need to fund these agencies and programs at 2024 levels, but they have more control over the specific grant programs and their priorities since there aren’t explanatory statements or conference reports like normal. One example of what the administration could possible do is spend funds on programs focused on fentanyl addition rather than suicide prevention. However, generally when a continuous resolution is passed, Congress works back channels with the administration to ensure these programs continue as planned.

With six months left this fiscal year to allocate funding, it is mostly assumed the same programs as the previous fiscal year will be in place with slight modifications to include any administration priorities when allowable, so it’ll be important to review any Notice of Funding Opportunity in greater detail when they’re released about any potential changes.