The Senate has just a one-week window to pass a defense authorization bill and confer with the House if lawmakers are to get the bill signed into law by the end of the year–a point of pride for Congress, which has done so for 52 years straight now, but a feat that has little practical impact on the Defense Department.

Though technically a government department needs an authorization bill and an appropriations bill to spend money–one to legally allow an activity and one to provide the money to do so–most DoD activities would continue if Congress couldn’t get to the defense authorization bill until it returns to Washington in the new year. Only a few programs actually expire on Dec. 31 and are in need of renewal in the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban said Nov. 26.

In the absence of the NDAA, the department would not be allowed to spend money in a few specialized programs, including the Afghanistan Reintegration Program that provides incentives for insurgents in Afghanistan to become peaceful members of society.

Primarily, the programs that would expire at the end of the calendar year are bonus and special pay programs, used to incentivize troops to join or stay in specialties that are understaffed, hazardous or otherwise not manned according to DoD needs.

Reserve force, healthcare professional and nuclear officer bonus and special pays would expire at the end of the year. A variety of Title 37 special pay, incentive pay and bonuses would also expire, including officer and enlisted general bonus authority, hazardous duty pay, skill incentive pay and proficiency bonuses, retention incentives for critical military skills and high-priority units, incentive bonuses for transfer between armed forces and many more, according to a list of authorizations provided by Urban.

Though the lapse, if long enough, could hinder the services’ force-shaping efforts, the bigger problem would be if the budget conference committee, with Democrats and Republicans from both the House and Senate, cannot reach an agreement to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. Congress still has not passed an appropriations bill for FY ’14, and a continuing resolution now funds the government only through Jan. 15. Without a deal by then, the government would shut down again, as it did Oct. 1.