History. 1 of 7 sessions: 2018, from 22 December at the second deadline, 15 days after the first. With the 6 excluded sessions since FY1977, 2 of 13 (1982, 2018).
Hunch. This Congress has already let government money run out three times since October 2025, including a 42-day shutdown.
The 31 December shutdown market resolves YES if before midnight Washington time on 31 December 2026 a lapse in funding makes any part of the US government stop work, shown by an OMB shutdown order or the OPM status page, and NO otherwise, with a lapse where OMB tells agencies to keep working counted as NO. The Guardian and CBS News confirm it, and settle it if the official pages are silent.
We looked for cases where a US Congress whose majority had just lost an election still had to fund the government before the new Congress arrived. We found seven such sessions, from 1980 to 2024. Each time, money did not run out for a whole day at the first deadline. Once, in 2018, money ran out at the second deadline.