Federal agencies start fiscal year 2027 on Thursday, Oct. 1, with funding already in place, because President Trump signed H.R. 6500 on Sept. 2 to keep the government open through Dec. 11, 2026. The stopgap freezes spending at last year’s rates instead of setting new ones, so benefit payments, food programs and veterans housing money keep flowing while the larger budget argument moves into the winter. The text also shows exactly what that date does and does not settle.
A bill that left the House in January and was signed Sept. 2
The measure is formally the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, and it became Public Law 119-103. The govinfo legislative record shows the House passing it on Jan. 12, 2026, the Senate amending it during Aug. 5 to 7, and the House concurring in the Senate amendments on Sept. 1. The White House signing statement says the law, signed Sept. 2, provides fiscal year 2027 appropriations to federal agencies through Dec. 11, 2026, for continuing projects and activities of the federal government.
Under Section 101 of the enrolled bill text, money is appropriated at fiscal 2026 rates for projects covered by twelve regular appropriations acts, from Agriculture and Defense to Labor and Health and Human Services and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Section 106 then makes the funds available until the first of three things happens: a full-year fiscal 2027 appropriation is enacted, the applicable appropriations act is enacted without the project, or Dec. 11 arrives. Dec. 11 is therefore a ceiling, and a full-year bill passed earlier would replace it.
The bill also carries restrictions that keep the stopgap from acting like a new budget. Sections 102 through 104 bar the Defense Department from starting new production items, raising production rates or beginning projects that were not funded in fiscal 2026. Section 112 lets agencies spend on civilian personnel at the rate needed to avoid furloughs, after trimming non-personnel administrative costs. Section 144 freezes congressional cost-of-living adjustments for the period, and Section 115 directs the Office of Management and Budget to report on rescissions by Nov. 20, 2026.
Payments, food programs and veterans housing under Section 111 and Division D
The provision that matters most to households is Section 111, which continues mandatory entitlements and food program activities at the levels set by current law through Dec. 11. It also allows obligations for payments that come due within 30 days after the stopgap ends. The bill does not describe which individual benefits that covers, so the section is best read as a protection for programs whose payment rules already sit in permanent law rather than as a new grant of money to any one group.
Food programs get their own lines. Section 117 lets the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children be funded at the rate necessary to maintain participation, and Section 118 does the same for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program at the rate needed to maintain current caseload. Those wordings tie the money to participation and caseload, which means the stopgap follows demand instead of freezing a fixed dollar amount for the whole fall.
Heating aid is the one area where lawmakers were already arguing about execution. On Sept. 25, Sen. Jacky Rosen and colleagues demanded that the administration release funding to lower heating and cooling costs, citing a requirement in P.L. 119-103 that the Department of Health and Human Services distribute at least 90 percent of its total Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program allotment by Nov. 1, 2026. That date falls about six weeks before the stopgap expires, which makes it the earliest checkpoint in the law for a household program.
Division D extends a long list of Department of Veterans Affairs authorities to Dec. 11. Section 4101 continues hospital and nursing home copayment collection, Section 4304 adds $130,191,781 for supportive housing for very low-income veteran families for Oct. 1 through Dec. 11, and Sections 4307 and 4308 keep specially adapted housing assistance for disabled veterans running. Section 2007 trims the Medicare Improvement Fund from $2.062 billion to $2.041 billion, a $21 million reduction that the bill text does not explain.
What the Dec. 11 date leaves open, and what runs on longer clocks
Most of the extensions share the stopgap’s end date. Division C, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2026, carries highway and transit authority through Dec. 11, with Highway Trust Fund tax dates moved to Dec. 12. Division B extends the Grain Standards Act, the Defense Production Act provision, Toxic Substances Control Act fee authority, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, patent fee-setting authority and Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative passport fees to the same day, so a single missed deadline would reopen many separate authorities at once.
A few items were given much longer horizons. The African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Haiti Economic Lift Program run to 2028 under Sections 2008 and 2009, and customs user fees are extended to March 31, 2032 under Section 2010. The contrast shows that Congress was willing to settle some trade questions for years while leaving spending, transportation and most program authorities on a roughly ten-week clock that started with the signing.
What comes after Dec. 11 is the part the law does not address. The enrolled text supplies no fiscal 2027 funding beyond Dec. 11, and Section 106 ends the continuing authority on that date unless a full-year appropriation or another law intervenes. Section 111’s 30-day payment clause cushions entitlements briefly, but the food, housing and energy programs that depend on annual appropriations have only the stopgap’s terms until Congress acts.
For households on fixed incomes, the practical marker is the pair of dates already in the record: Nov. 1 for the LIHEAP distribution requirement that Sen. Rosen cited, and Dec. 11 for the end of the continuing authority. Between them lies the period when state agencies, food programs and veterans housing providers will learn whether funding continues at the same rates. The bill text, not a shutdown warning, is what defines that window.
Property-tax and heating relief for households on fixed incomes
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
