Continuing Resolution (CR)
A continuing resolution is a stopgap appropriations act that keeps agencies operating after regular appropriations lapse, funding existing activities at a prior-year rate for operations, generally barring new starts, until full-year appropriations pass or the CR expires.
A CR funds continuing projects and activities at a rate for operations derived from the prior year's appropriations. OMB automatically apportions each account a pro-rata share — the annualized rate times the fraction of the year the CR covers (OMB Circular A-11, section 123) — and agencies take only the most limited funding action the CR permits.
Standard CR language bars starting programs not funded the prior year and increasing production rates. The condition is chronic: GAO counts only 12 of the last 49 fiscal years in which DoD did not operate under a CR. FY2026 ran the full gauntlet — a 42-day lapse, a CR through January 30, and full-year appropriations on February 3, 2026.
For contracting, a CR means incremental funding, slipped awards, and options that come due before money does. For routine operation-and-maintenance and continuing-service requirements, FAR 32.703-2 permits starting the action before funds arrive under the Availability of Funds clause at FAR 52.232-18; nothing permits obligating money the agency does not have.
Regulatory Reference
OMB Circular A-11, sec. 123; FAR 32.703-2; FAR 52.232-18
RFO Status
The Part 32 model deviation keeps the funds-availability rules at FAR 32.703-2 and 32.703-3 in regulation, so CR-driven contracting mechanics carry through the overhaul unchanged.
Category
Regulations & Policy
How AcqBot Helps
AcqBot builds the CR triage list — which awards, options, and incremental funding actions in the pipeline hit an account still on a partial apportionment — and drafts the availability-of-funds conditioning at FAR 52.232-18 for the routine requirements that qualify for it.
Related glossary entries
Class Deviation
A class deviation authorizes an agency to depart from specific FAR or supplement provisions for a category of contract actions rather than a single case — the mechanism agencies are using to implement the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul ahead of formal rulemaking.
Commercial Products and Services (FAR Part 12)
Commercial products and commercial services are items of a type sold, leased, licensed, or offered in the commercial marketplace, defined at FAR 2.101. FAR Part 12 implements the statutory preference for buying them whenever market research shows they can meet the agency's need.
Rule of Two
The rule of two directs a contracting officer to set aside an acquisition for small business when there is a reasonable expectation of receiving offers from at least two responsible small business concerns and making award at fair market prices, per FAR 19.502-2.
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is information the government creates or possesses, or that an entity handles on its behalf, that a law, regulation, or governmentwide policy requires safeguarding or dissemination controls for — sensitive but not classified, governed by 32 CFR Part 2002.