A stopgap funding bill is a temporary measure passed by Congress to keep the government open and funded for a short period of time while lawmakers negotiate a more comprehensive spending bill. The stopgap funding bill is usually passed when Congress fails to pass a regular appropriations bill before the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30th. The stopgap funding bill provides funding for government agencies at their current levels for a specified period of time, usually a few weeks to a few months.

In September 2023, Congress passed a 45-day stopgap funding bill to keep the government open and prevent a shutdown. The bill was passed just hours before a funding lapse was set to furlough hundreds of thousands of federal employees. The bill kept agencies funded at their current levels through November 17, 2023, and included $16 billion for disaster relief. The bill did not include $6 billion in aid for Ukraine, which was included in the Senate bill but scrapped in the final House-backed bill. The stopgap funding bill was passed with broad bipartisan support after Democrats threw their support behind the measure.