Congress Weekly: The Streak Ended. The Freeze Didn't.

Lambeau lost a home opener, an Iran war-powers resolution failed in the Senate by one vote, and the House had already gone home. Fiscal year 2027 starts Thursday under P.L. 119-103, and Sections 102 and 104 are still the rules through December 11.

Sources: NFL.com · Bloomberg Government · CBS News · House Clerk

Congressional Calendar — The House Left. The Senate Has One Week.

The two chambers are on different clocks. The House has held only pro forma sessions since September 16 — brief openings with no business and no votes — and its next votes are set for November 9. The early exit also parked Rep. Thomas Massie’s eight articles of impeachment against Secretary Pete Hegseth, filed over the Iran war; Speaker Mike Johnson has said they will be tabled.

The Senate stayed. It met September 22 through 24, returns Monday at 3 p.m. with a 5:30 p.m. vote on passage of S. 4668, a college-sports bill, and is scheduled to remain through October 2. Then it breaks for a state work period from October 5 to November 6.

On Thursday the Senate also took the Iran war-powers vote that last week’s issue left hanging — though not on the resolution the House passed September 15. It voted on H. Con. Res. 89, the resolution the House passed in July, and rejected it 49–50. Four Republicans voted yes; one Democrat voted no. H. Con. Res. 93 sits with the Foreign Relations Committee. Either way, a concurrent resolution never reaches the President, and none of it moves a dollar.

The number for your capture board is not nine, and it is not five. It is zero House votes before the election, and about a month of lame-duck session before the continuing resolution runs out on December 11.

The Standings — What Belongs on the Board

The middle column is what the record shows. The last column is the next thing you can actually observe.

October 1 Is a Date, Not an Appropriation

Expect Thursday’s coverage to read like a season opener: the new fiscal year begins, the funding fight resumes, programs get their shot. Some of that is harmless. The part that is not is the suggestion that October opens a window September kept shut.

It does not. Under P.L. 119-103, Section 101 provides fiscal 2027 money for activities that were funded in FY26, at FY26 rates and under FY26 conditions. Section 102(a) bars the Department from using it for new production of items not funded in FY26 or earlier, for production-rate increases above FY26, or to start projects, P-1 lines or R-1 lines that lacked FY26 authority. Section 104 applies the same no-new-starts rule government-wide. The act says all of that about fiscal year 2027. Thursday is the day it starts applying, not the day it stops.

What Thursday does change is quieter and more useful: the age of the money. One-year FY26 money stops being available for new obligations at midnight Wednesday. That is why contracting offices have been busy all month, and why a modification you were promised “before the end of the fiscal year” either arrives by Wednesday or waits on a different pot of money. The Playbook below walks through what that means on your side of the contract.

After the Election — What December 11 Actually Leaves

Here is the fall as the record now shows it. The Senate has one scheduled week left and opens it on college sports. The House is gone until November 9. When both chambers are back, they will have about a month before P.L. 119-103 expires to pass full-year appropriations, pass another continuing resolution, or let funding lapse.

The defense authorization is on the same clock. The House passed H.R. 8800 in July; the Senate’s version stalled on a failed cloture vote the same month, and the bill is widely expected to slip into the lame duck. That is not unusual. The last two election-year NDAAs were both signed on December 23 — the FY2023 act in 2022 and the FY2025 act in 2024.

None of this predicts that nothing happens in December. It is a reason to build October and November on what is enacted — a continuing resolution with bars in it — and to treat anything beyond that as an upside case with a date you cannot yet name.

Weekly Digest — The Bridge Posted. Read the Eligibility Line First.

The DIU facility-clearance story from the last two issues has a solicitation now. DIU posted two CLASS ACT calls: one for companies with sensors and effectors that counter unmanned systems in maritime environments, and one for investors backing such companies. Both close October 13. Awards are prototype other transactions with a possible production follow-on. Defense Daily and Inside Defense tie the calls to DIU’s Bridge clearance effort; the postings themselves do not describe clearance sponsorship, so read them for what they state.

What they state first is an eligibility floor. The vendor call is for nontraditional defense contractors that have never held a facility clearance, with U.S.-citizen key management — and it asks for technology at TRL 7 or higher, at least $10 million in equity raised and at least $2 million in revenue. The investor call asks for at least $100 million in capital. This is a path for venture-backed firms near production, not an open door for every small business that has struggled to get cleared. If you are below the floor, the useful move is to note where the floor sits and what it says about how DIU intends to use the program.

A second item from the same week makes the ceiling-versus-cash point from a new angle. On September 24 the Department announced a $199.7 million requirements contract to GE Aviation’s Dowty Propellers for R-391 propeller assemblies and spares, with “no funds … being obligated at the time of award.” The same day, Northrop Grumman received a not-to-exceed $123.8 million award for APG-85 radar Lot 7 long-lead materials, with FY26 procurement money for the full amount obligated at award. Two nine-figure headlines. One is a place orders can go. The other is money.

Small Business Playbook — October 1 Changes the Money, Not the Rules

Most small contractors track their contract value. Fewer track which fiscal year’s money is on the contract, or how much of it is actually there. This week is the one week a year when that difference moves. Three ideas.

1. Every appropriation has a shelf life. Congress sets a period of availability for each account. For the Defense Department it is typically one year for operation and maintenance and military personnel, two years for research and development, three years for most procurement, and five years for shipbuilding and military construction. Inside that window, the bona fide needs rule requires the money to serve a need of the period it was provided for. That rule is the engine behind the September rush: one-year money not obligated by September 30 cannot go on a new contract action afterward. One study of federal contracting found spending in the last week of the fiscal year running 4.9 times the average of the rest of the year’s weeks.

2. Expired is not the same as gone — until it is. When the period ends, the account expires: no new obligations, but it can still pay invoices and adjustments on obligations properly made while it was current (31 U.S.C. §1553). Five fiscal years later, on September 30, it closes, and whatever is left is cancelled (§1552). This Wednesday is one of those dates: FY2021 operation and maintenance, FY2020 research and development, FY2019 procurement and FY2017 shipbuilding and military construction accounts all close. If you have unbilled work on those funding lines, invoice now; after closure, payment has to come out of current money, within limits. For services, one exception is worth knowing: the Department may fund a severable service contract of up to twelve months that crosses into the next fiscal year with the current year’s money (10 U.S.C. §3133).

3. Your funded amount is the number that matters. Many cost-type contracts are funded in increments, and the Limitation of Funds clause governs them. It requires you to notify the contracting officer in writing when you expect your costs over the next 60 days, added to what you have already incurred, to exceed 75 percent of the amount allotted. The government is not obligated to pay beyond the allotment, and you are not obligated to keep working past it. Consider a hypothetical twelve-person engineering firm on a cost-reimbursement task order with a $4 million value and $1.1 million allotted, spending about $180,000 a month. It owes that notice once incurred costs plus the next 60 days of spending — about $360,000 — pass $825,000, which on that burn rate is about two and a half months in — with the money itself gone around month six. Under a continuing resolution the next increment may come later or smaller than planned. The notice is what protects the firm. Skipping it is how a small company ends up working for free. Read the version of the clause in your own contract; that is the one that binds you.

The Briefcase — One Page for October 1

The next five weeks will not give you much news to react to. That makes this the week to put the fiscal year on paper.

If you are already on contract, keep performing, and check your allotment before you check the news. A continuing resolution is not a stop-work order, and neither is a recess.

If you were promised a modification “before the end of the fiscal year,” ask this week whether it will be signed by Wednesday, and if not, what money it will carry when it is.

If you are waiting on a first award, a first production lot or a rate increase, the calendar has not moved in your favor. Plan against December at the earliest, and against a second continuing resolution as a live possibility.

The Final Whistle

A thirteen-year streak ended in one night at Lambeau. A nine-day runway turned out to be zero. Both were printed before anyone checked the record.

The continuing resolution was checked, and it has not moved. The fiscal year turns over Thursday. The rules turn over only when Congress writes new ones, and the House is not in the building.

How I Help Small Defense Businesses

You may be the owner, the business-development lead and the person checking payroll — all before lunch. The challenge is deciding which opportunity deserves the time your team actually has, especially in a stretch when Washington is quiet and the headlines about a “new fiscal year” suggest more movement than there is.

Through DoD Industry Advisor, I help small defense businesses turn market information into a pursuit decision: examining the buyer, the funding signals, the incumbent and the timing; identifying the gaps in your position; and building a practical plan for what to do next. I also help with proposal and briefing materials when the pursuit calls for them. Explore DIA’s services.

Bring one opportunity you are weighing and the decision you need to make. We can scope the work around whether to pursue it, what needs more evidence, and where your effort belongs over the next 90 days.