A budget crisis is an informal name for a situation in which the legislative and the executive in a presidential system

Presidential system

A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not responsible and which cannot, in normal circumstances, dismiss it....

 deadlock and are unable to pass a budget. In presidential systems, the legislature has the power to pass a budget, but the executive often has a veto in which there are insufficient votes in the legislature to override. If no emergency provisions are made for the government's budget, a budget crisis may develop into a government shutdown

Government shutdown

In U.S. politics, a government shutdown is a situation in which the government stops providing all but "essential" services. Typically, services that continue despite a shutdown include police, fire fighting, postal service, armed forces, utilities, air traffic management, and corrections.- Causes...

 in which the government temporarily suspends non-essential services until a budget is passed.

Unlike parliamentary systems, where a Loss of Supply

Loss of Supply

Loss of supply occurs where a government in a parliamentary democracy using the Westminster System or a system derived from it is denied a supply of treasury or exchequer funds, by whichever house or houses of parliament or head of state is constitutionally entitled to grant and deny supply. A...

 would trigger resignations and new elections, a budget crisis can often lead to an extended stand-off. At the federal level in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, a crisis can often be averted by a continuing resolution

Continuing resolution

A continuing resolution is a type of appropriations legislation used by the United States Congress to fund government agencies if a formal appropriations bill has not been signed into law by the end of the Congressional fiscal year...

 which appropriates funding at the same level as the previous budget.

A budget crisis can also occur if the legislative branch has a constitutionally mandated dissolution or suspension date and the budget hasn't been passed up to that point.

United States federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996

A particularly severe budget crisis occurred in the United States in November 1995, when the House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 under Speaker

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...

 Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich

Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....

 and the administration of President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 quarrelled over apportionments. The failure of the House and Clinton to pass a continuing budget resolution to apportion temporary funds forced a closure of most non-essential United States government offices for several weeks.

Uses in popular culture

In the episode "Shutdown"

Shutdown (The West Wing)

-Plot:A disastrous fiscal crisis looms when the federal government is shut down after the President and the powerful Republican Speaker of the House disagree over an extra two percent in budget reductions that would trim many of Bartlet's key social programs. Opinion polls reveal that the public...

 of The West Wing

The West Wing (TV series)

The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...

, a budget crisis situation like the 1995-1996 federal government shutdown was depicted when Josiah Bartlet and Republican Speaker of the House Haffley

Jeff Haffley

Jeffrey Haffley, played by Steven Culp, is a recurring fictional character on the American television show The West Wing. A staunch Republican, Jeff Haffley replaces Glen Allen Walken as Speaker of the House early in the fifth season...

disagree over budget cuts and shuts down the government for a number of days.