In 1996, millions of people danced to the Macarena, watched Independence Day, and marveled at the cloning of Dolly the sheep. That year also featured an achievement even rarer than duplicated livestock: Congress completed the appropriations bills for fiscal 1997 on time.

In each year since, Congress has resorted to passing a continuing resolution that provides the same funding level as the prior year in order to buy time to complete the appropriations process. There have been an average of 5.3 continuing resolutions each fiscal year since 1998, each one lasting an average 142.7 days, or nearly five months. In two years, fiscals 2011 and 2013, Congress resorted to full-year continuing resolutions. Members of Congress therefore have failed for 23 consecutive years to perform the most basic aspect of their job: punctually passing the annual appropriations bills.