Federal Funding Runs Out Dec. 11: The Next Shutdown Deadline Lands Five Weeks After the Midterms

The federal government is funded through Friday, Dec. 11, 2026, under a stopgap spending law President Donald Trump signed on Sept. 2. That makes Dec. 11 the next shutdown deadline. It falls five weeks after the Nov. 3 midterm election, in the lame-duck session, when a Congress whose members may already have lost their seats has to finish the year’s spending bills.

What Congress passed

The law is H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027. The House agreed to the Senate’s version on Sept. 1 by a vote of 370 to 48, according to the House Clerk’s roll call. Republicans voted 193 to 19 in favor and Democrats 176 to 29, with one independent voting yes. The White House announced the signing the next day.

According to the White House notice, the law:

• funds federal agencies through Dec. 11, 2026, with a continuing resolution, and
• extends authorities for a range of programs, including surface transportation and veterans programs.

A continuing resolution generally keeps agencies operating at the previous year’s spending levels. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials’ summary says this one holds fiscal 2026 levels. Fiscal year 2027 began on Oct. 1, and the stopgap meant there was no lapse that day.

The deadline in detail

Item	Date
Stopgap law signed	Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026
Fiscal year 2027 began	Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026
Election Day	Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026
Thanksgiving	Thursday, Nov. 26, 2026
Current funding ends	Friday, Dec. 11, 2026, at the end of the day
119th Congress ends	Sunday, Jan. 3, 2027

If neither full-year spending bills nor another stopgap become law by the end of Dec. 11, agencies without funding would start shutting down at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12.

A short lame-duck calendar

Between the election and Dec. 11 there are about five working weeks, and Thanksgiving week falls in the middle. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma has said the time before the deadline is not enough to finish full-year bills, Fox News reported, which raises the odds of another stopgap.

Spending is not the only item waiting. The Senate has also not voted on the House-passed bill to make daylight saving time permanent; our daylight saving time report covers that bill. Any bill not passed by Jan. 3, 2027 dies with the 119th Congress.

What a lapse would affect

Each agency publishes a contingency plan listing which work continues during a lapse in funding. In past shutdowns:

• Social Security and Supplemental Security Income payments continued.
• The U.S. Postal Service, which is funded by its own revenue, kept delivering mail.
• Many federal employees were furloughed, and others worked without pay until funding returned.

The most recent full shutdown, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025, lasted 43 days, the longest on record.

Dates to watch

• Tuesday, Nov. 3: Election Day. The results shape the lame-duck negotiations.
• Thursday, Nov. 26: Thanksgiving; Congress typically recesses that week.
• Friday, Dec. 11: Funding deadline.
• Sunday, Jan. 3, 2027: The 119th Congress ends and the 120th begins.