Continuing resolution
A temporary funding measure that keeps agencies open at existing levels when the appropriations bills are not finished.
The federal fiscal year begins on 1 October. If Congress has not enacted the appropriations acts that fund the government by then, agencies have no budget authority and must shut down the activities that depend on it.
A continuing resolution avoids that by extending funding, usually at the previous year’s levels, for a stated period. It is a law: it passes both chambers and is signed by the president. What it deliberately does not do is settle the underlying disagreement about the levels — it postpones it to the new expiry date.
Congress passes one nearly every year. A CR is what stands between the start of a fiscal year and a government shutdown when the twelve appropriations bills have not been enacted.