Order Code 98-721 GOV
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Introduction to the Federal Budget Process
Updated December 31, 2003
Robert Keith
Specialist in American National Government
Government Division
Allen Schick
Consultant
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

Introduction to the Federal Budget Process
Summary
Budgeting for the federal government is an enormously complex process. It
entails dozens of subprocesses, countless rules and procedures, the efforts of tens of
thousands of staff persons in the executive and legislative branches, millions of work
hours each year, and the active participation of the President and congressional
leaders, as well as other Members of Congress and executive officials.
The enforcement of budgetary decisions involves a complex web of procedures
that encompasses both congressional and executive actions. In recent years, these
procedures have been rooted principally in two statutes—the Congressional Budget
Act of 1974 and the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA). The 1974 act established a
congressional budget process in which budget policies are enforced by Congress
during the consideration of individual measures. The BEA is the most recent
embodiment of additional enforcement procedures, first established in the Balanced
Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 and renewed with substantial
modification in 1990 and 1997, that have been used by the executive to enforce
budget policies after the end of a congressional session. The BEA enforcement
procedures have been waived in recent years and effectively expired toward the end
of the 107th Congress; it is not clear at this point whether they will be revived in the
108th Congress.
The President’s budget is required by law to be submitted to Congress early in
the legislative session. While the budget is only a request to Congress, the power to
formulate and submit the budget is a vital tool in the President’s direction of the
executive branch and of national policy. The President’s proposals often influence
congressional revenue and spending decisions, though the extent of the influence
varies from year to year and depends more on political and fiscal conditions than on
the legal status of the budget.
The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 establishes the congressional budget
process as the means by which Congress coordinates the various budget-related
actions (such as the consideration of appropriations and revenue measures) taken by
it during the course of the year. The process is centered around an annual concurrent
resolution on the budget that sets aggregate budget policies and functional spending
priorities for at least the next five fiscal years. Because a concurrent resolution is not
a law—it cannot be signed or vetoed by the President—the budget resolution does
not have statutory effect; no money can be raised or spent pursuant to it. Revenue
and spending amounts set in the budget resolution establish the basis for the
enforcement of congressional budget policies through points of order.
Congress implements budget resolution policies through action on individual
revenue and debt-limit measures, annual appropriations acts, and direct spending
legislation. In some years, Congress considers reconciliation legislation pursuant to
reconciliation instructions in the budget resolution. Reconciliation legislation is used
mainly to bring existing revenue and direct spending laws into conformity with
budget resolution policies Initially, reconciliation was a major tool for deficit
reduction; in recent years, reconciliation has been used mainly to reduce revenues.

Contents
The Evolution of Federal Budgeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Basic Concepts of Federal Budgeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Deficit Reduction and the Rules of Congressional Budgeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Budgeting for Discretionary and Direct Spending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Budgeting for Direct and Guaranteed Loans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Budget Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Presidential Budget Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Congressional Budget Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Sequestration Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Spending Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Revenue Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Debt-Limit Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Reconciliation Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Impoundment and Line-Item Veto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Introduction to the Federal Budget Process
The Evolution of Federal Budgeting
The “power of the purse” is a legislative power. The Constitution lists the
power to lay and collect taxes and the power to borrow as powers of Congress;
further, it provides that funds may be drawn from the Treasury only pursuant to
appropriations made by law. The Constitution does not state how these legislative
powers are to be exercised, nor does it expressly provide for the President to have a
role in the management of the nation’s finances.
During the nation’s early years, the House and Senate devised procedures for the
enactment of spending and revenue legislation. As these procedures evolved during
the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, they led to highly
fragmented legislative actions. In the course of each session, Congress passed many
separate appropriations bills and other measures affecting the financial condition of
the federal government. Neither the Constitution nor the procedures adopted by the
House and Senate provided for a budget system—that is, for a coordinated set of
actions covering all federal spending and revenues. As long as the federal
government was small and its spending and revenues were stable, such a budget
system was not considered necessary.
Early in the 20th century, the incessant rise in federal spending and the
recurrence of deficits (spending exceeded revenues in half of the 20 years preceding
FY1920) led Congress to seek a more coordinated means of making financial
decisions. The key legislation was the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which
established the executive budget process.
The 1921 act did not directly alter the procedures by which Congress makes
revenue and spending decisions. The main impact was in the executive branch. The
President was required to submit his budget recommendations to Congress each year,
and the Bureau of the Budget—renamed the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) in 1970—was created to assist him in carrying out his budgetary
responsibilities. Congress, it was expected, would be able to coordinate its revenue
and spending decisions if it received comprehensive budget recommendations from
the President. In line with this expectation, the House and Senate changed their rules
to consolidate the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committees over spending. The
1921 act also established the General Accounting Office (GAO), headed by the
Comptroller General, and made it the principal auditing arm of the federal
government. The 1921 act, as amended, remains the statutory basis for the
presidential budget system.

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After World War II, the belief that the presidential budget sufficed to maintain
fiscal control gave way to the view that Congress needed its own budget process.
Some Members of Congress feared that dependence on the executive budget had
bolstered the President’s fiscal powers at the expense of Congress’s; others felt that
as long as its financial decisions were fragmented, Congress could not effectively
control expenditures.
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 established
a congressional budget process centered around a concurrent resolution on the
budget, scheduled for adoption prior to legislative consideration of revenue or
spending bills. The congressional budget process initiated in the 1970s did not
replace the preexisting revenue and spending processes. Instead, it provided an
overall legislative framework within which the many separate measures affecting the
budget would be considered. The central purpose of the budget process established
by the 1974 act is to coordinate the various revenue and spending decisions which
are made in separate revenue, appropriations, and other budgetary measures. To
assist Congress in making budget decisions, the 1974 act established the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and directed it to provide data on and analyses
of the federal budget.
During the years that the congressional budget process has been in operation,
its procedures have been adapted by Congress to changing circumstances. Following
a decade of experience with the 1974 Congressional Budget Act, Congress made
further changes in the budget process by enacting the Balanced Budget and
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (also known as the Gramm-Rudman-
Hollings Act), the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, the Line Item Veto Act in 1996,
and the Budget Enforcement Act of 1997, among other laws.
The 1985 act prescribed declining deficit targets intended to achieve balance in
FY1991; the targets were enforced by sequestration, a process involving automatic,
across-the-board cuts in nonexempt spending programs if the targets were expected
to be exceeded. The 1990 act replaced the deficit targets with caps on discretionary
spending and a pay-as-you-go requirement for revenue and direct spending
legislation; sequestration was retained as the means of enforcing the two new
mechanisms. The 1996 act authorized the President to cancel discretionary spending
in appropriation acts, as well as new direct spending and limited tax benefits in other
legislation, subject to expedited legislative procedures by which Congress could
overturn the cancellations. (The Supreme Court struck down the Line Item Veto Act
in June 1998 as unconstitutional.) Finally, the 1997 act extended the BEA
procedures for several more years.
Basic Concepts of Federal Budgeting
The federal budget is a compilation of numbers about the revenues, spending,
and borrowing and debt of the government. Revenues come largely from taxes, but
stem from other sources as well (such as duties, fines, licenses, and gifts). Spending
involves such concepts as budget authority, obligations, outlays, and offsetting
collections. The numbers are computed according to rules and conventions that have

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accumulated over the years; they do not always conform to the way revenues and
spending are accounted for in other processes.
Budget Authority and Outlays
When Congress appropriates money, it provides budget authority, that is,
authority to enter into obligations. Budget authority also may be provided in
legislation that does not go through the appropriations process (direct spending
legislation). The key congressional spending decisions relate to the obligations that
agencies are authorized to incur during a fiscal year, not to the outlays made during
the year. (Obligations occur when agencies enter into contracts, submit purchase
orders, employ personnel, and so forth; outlays occur when obligations are
liquidated, primarily through the issuance of checks, electronic fund transfers, or the
disbursement of cash.)
The provision of budget authority is the key point at which Congress exercises
control over federal spending, although the outlay level often receives greater public
attention because of its bearing on the deficit. Congress does not directly control
outlays; each year’s outlays derive in part from new budget authority and in part from
“carryover” budget authority provided in prior years. For example, President Bush’s
initial budget submission for FY2004 estimated that outlays would total $2,229
billion for that year. Approximately $1,808 billion of this amount was estimated to
come from new budget authority for the fiscal year, while the remainder ($421
billion) was estimated to come from budget authority enacted in prior years.
The relation of budget authority to outlays varies from program to program and
depends on spendout rates, the rates at which funds provided by Congress are
obligated and payments disbursed. In a program with a high spendout rate, most new
budget authority is expended during the fiscal year; if the spendout rate is low,
however, most of the outlays occur in later years. Regardless of the spendout rate,
the outlays in the budget are merely estimates of the amounts that will be disbursed
during the year. If payments turn out to be higher than the budget estimate, outlays
will be above the budgeted level. The President and Congress control outlays
indirectly by deciding on the amount of budget authority to be provided or by limiting
the amount of obligations to be incurred.
Certain receipts of the federal government are accounted for as “offsets” against
outlays rather than as revenues. Various fees collected by government agencies are
deducted from outlays; similarly, income from the sale of certain assets are treated
as offsetting receipts. Most such receipts are offsets against the outlays of the
agencies that collect the money, but in the case of offshore oil leases and certain other
activities, the revenues are deducted from the total outlays of the government.
Scope of the Budget
The budget consists of two main groups of funds: federal funds and trust funds.
Federal funds—which comprise mainly the general fund—largely derive from the
general exercise of the taxing power and general borrowing and for the most part are
not earmarked by law to any specific program or agency. One component of federal

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funds, called special funds, are earmarked as to source and purpose. The use of
federal funds is determined largely by appropriations acts.
Trust funds are established, under the terms of statutes that designate them as
trust funds, to account for funds earmarked by specific sources and purposes. The
Social Security funds are the largest of the trust funds; revenues are collected under
a Social Security payroll tax and are used to pay for Social Security benefits and
related purposes. The unified budget includes both the federal funds and the trust
funds. The balances in the trust funds are borrowed by the federal government; they
are counted, therefore, in the federal debt. Because these balances offset a budget
deficit but are included in the federal debt, the annual increase in the debt invariably
exceeds the amount of the budget deficit. For the same reason, it is possible for the
federal debt to rise when the federal government has a budget surplus.
Capital and operating expenses are not segregated in the budget. Hence, monies
paid for the operations of government agencies as well as for the acquisition of
long-life assets (such as buildings, roads, and weapons systems) are reported as
budget outlays. Proposals have been made from time to time to divide the budget
into capital and operating accounts. While these proposals have not been adopted,
the budget provides information showing the investment and operating outlays of the
government.
The budget totals do not include all the financial transactions of the federal
government. The main exclusions fall into two categories—off-budget entities and
government-sponsored enterprises. In addition, the budget includes direct and
guaranteed loans on the basis of the accounting rules established by the Federal
Credit Reform Act of 1990, which are discussed below.
Off-budget entities are excluded by law from the budget totals. The receipts and
disbursements of the Social Security trust funds (the Old-Age and Survivors
Insurance Fund and the Disability Insurance Fund), as well as spending for the Postal
Service Fund, are excluded from the budget totals. These transactions are shown
separately in the budget. Thus, the budget now reports two deficit or surplus
amounts—one excluding the Social Security trust funds and the Postal Service Fund,
and the other (on a unified basis) including these entities. The latter is the main focus
of discussion in both the President’s budget and the congressional budget process.
The transactions of government-owned corporations (excluding the Postal
Service), as well as revolving funds, are included in the budget on a net basis. That
is, the amount shown in the budget is the difference between receipts and outlays, not
the total activity of the enterprise or revolving fund. If, for example, a revolving fund
has annual income of $150 million and disbursements of $200 million, the budget
would report $50 million as net outlays.
Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are excluded from the budget
because they are deemed to be private rather than public entities. The federal
government does not own any equity in these enterprises, most of which receive their
financing from private sources. Although they were established by the federal
government, their budgets are not reviewed by the President or Congress in the same
manner as other programs. Most of these enterprises engage in credit activities.

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They borrow funds in capital markets and lend money to homeowners, farmers, and
others. In total, these enterprises have assets and liabilities in excess of one trillion
dollars. Financial statements of the government-sponsored enterprises are published
in the President’s budget.
Deficit Reduction and the Rules
of Congressional Budgeting
Between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, annual consideration of the budget
was dominated by concern about the budget deficit. In the mid-1980s, the deficit
exceeded $150 billion and amounted to almost six percent of GDP. In the early
1990s, the deficit approached the $300 billion level. Following four years of
surpluses (FY1998-2001), the budget returned to deficit for FY2002. Current budget
projections show sizeable deficits persisting over the coming years.
The size of the deficit depends on how it is measured. The unified budget
deficit combines all on-budget federal funds and trust funds with the off-budget
entities (the Social Security trust funds and the Postal Service Fund). The unified
budget deficit generally is regarded as the most comprehensive measure of the impact
of the budget on the economy. A narrower measure of the deficit is derived by
excluding the Social Security trust funds from the totals. This exclusion is mandated
by law, although Social Security is counted in the budget in reports on the deficit.
Excluding Social Security from computations of the deficit or surplus results in
higher deficit or lower surplus figures.
Regardless of the measure used, it is evident that the deficit was unusually high
for an extended period of time. The chronic deficits of the 1980s prompted Congress
to enact the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. The 1985
act established deficit targets for each year through FY1991, when the budget was to
be balanced, and a sequestration process under which budgetary resources would be
canceled automatically (through largely across-the-board spending cuts) if the
estimated deficit exceeded the amount allowed under the act.
Even with the targets, the actual deficit for the covered years was above the
targeted level. Failure to achieve the deficit targets, and other problems, led
Congress to revise the process in the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) of 1990.
Sequestration procedures were retained, but the fixed deficit targets were replaced
by adjustable ones (which expired at the end of FY1995), adjustable limits were
imposed on discretionary spending, and a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) process was
established for revenues and direct spending. The discretionary spending limits and
PAYGO process were extended (through FY1998) by the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation of 1993 and again (through FY2002) by the BEA of 1997.
The BEA enforcement procedures have been waived in recent years and they
effectively expired toward the end of the 107th Congress. Although it is not clear at
this point whether they will be revived in their current form during the 108th
Congress, the recurrence of persistent deficits suggests that additional enforcement
procedures modeled on discretionary spending limits and a PAYGO requirement
could be adopted.

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Under the discretionary spending limits, different categories of discretionary
spending were used for different periods. Under the 1997 changes, discretionary
spending limits applied separately to defense and nondefense spending for FY1998-
1999 and to violent crime reduction spending for FY1998-2000; for the remaining
fiscal years, the 1997 changes merged all discretionary spending into a single, general
purpose category. In 1998, as part of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st
Century, Congress added separate categories for highway and mass transit spending.
Finally, in 2000, Congress added a category for conservation spending; unlike the
other categories, the conservation spending category has six subcategories.
The PAYGO process required that the budgetary impact of revenue and direct
spending legislation be recorded on a multiyear “PAYGO scorecard,” and that in the
net any such legislation not yield a negative balance for the upcoming fiscal year.
Legislation reducing revenues or increasing direct spending for a fiscal year had to
be offset (in the same or other legislation) by revenue increases or reductions in direct
spending for that fiscal year so that the applicable balance on the PAYGO scorecard
remained at or above zero.
The Senate has supplemented the statutory PAYGO requirement with a special
PAYGO point of order included in annual budget resolutions. The point of order
bars the consideration in the Senate of any legislation that proposes increases in
direct spending or reductions in revenue beyond what budget resolution policies
allow. The Senate PAYGO rule applies to three different time periods extending
over a decade.
Under the BEA procedures, violations of the discretionary spending limits or the
PAYGO requirement were to be enforced by sequestration. However, sequestration
has not been used for more than a decade, either because Congress and the President
enacted budgetary legislation consistent with the discretionary spending limits and
PAYGO requirement, or, more recently, effectively waived these enforcement
requirements.
Budgeting for Discretionary and Direct Spending
The distinction drawn by the BEA and the congressional budget process
between discretionary spending (which is controlled through the annual
appropriations process) and direct spending (which is provided outside of the annual
appropriations process) recognized that the federal government has somewhat
different, though overlapping, means of dealing with these two types of spending.
One set of procedures pertained to discretionary spending, another to direct spending.
Most of the direct spending subject to the PAYGO process under the BEA
involved entitlement programs; the rest consisted of other forms of mandatory
spending provided through authorizing legislation and interest payments. In fact,
entitlements now account for about half of total federal spending (all direct spending,
including net interest, accounts for about two-thirds of the total). The impressive
feature of this trend is that most of the growth in spending and in the number of
recipients has been built into existing law; for the most part, it has not been the result
of new legislation.

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The procedures for discretionary and direct spending converge at two critical
points in federal budgeting: formulation of the President’s budget and formulation
of the congressional budget resolution. Both of these policy statements encompass
discretionary and direct spending, but the procedures used in budgeting for these
types of expenditure differ greatly. The distinctions have some notable exceptions.
Some procedures associated with direct spending are applied to particular types of
discretionary programs, and vice versa. Nevertheless, the generalizations presented
here help to explain the complications of the budget process and explain how
decisions are made.
(1) Budgetary Impact of Authorizing Legislation. An authorization for a
discretionary spending program is only a license to enact an appropriation. The
amount of budgetary resources available for spending is determined in annual
appropriations acts. For direct spending programs (principally entitlements), on the
other hand, the authorizing legislation either provides, or effectively mandates the
appropriation of, budget authority. In those entitlement programs that are subject to
annual appropriation, the Appropriations Committees have little or no discretion as
to the amounts they provide.
(2) Committees That Provide or Mandate Budget Authority. The
Appropriations Committees have jurisdiction and effective control over discretionary
spending programs, while authorizing committees effectively control direct spending
programs (including those funded in annual appropriations acts). In fact, committee
jurisdiction determines whether a program is classified as discretionary or direct
spending. All spending under the effective control of the Appropriations Committees
is discretionary; everything else is direct spending. Accordingly, when legislation
establishes a program as discretionary or direct spending, it not only determines the
character of spending but the locus of congressional committee control as well.
(3) Frequency of Decision-Making. Discretionary appropriations are, with
few exceptions, made annually for the current or next fiscal year. Direct spending
programs typically are established in permanent law that continues in effect until
such time as it is revised or terminated by another law. The fact that many
entitlements have annual appropriations does not diminish the permanence of the
laws governing the amounts spent. It should be noted, however, that some direct
spending programs, such as Medicare, have been subject to frequent legislative
changes. The purpose of such legislation has been to modify existing law, not to
provide annual funding.
(4) Means of Enforcing the Budget Resolution. The procedures used by
Congress to enforce the policies set forth in the annual budget resolution differ
somewhat for discretionary and direct spending programs. For both types of
spending, Congress relies on allocations made under Section 302 of the 1974
Congressional Budget Act to ensure that spending legislation reported by House and
Senate committees conforms to established budget policies. But although this
procedure is effective in controlling new legislation—both annual appropriations
measures and new entitlement legislation—it is not an effective control on the
spending that results from existing laws. Hence, Congress relies on reconciliation
procedures to enforce budget policies with respect to existing spending and revenue

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laws. Reconciliation is not currently applied to discretionary programs funded in
annual appropriations measures.
(5) Budget Enforcement Act Controls. Discretionary programs have been
subject to the spending limits set in the BEA. Direct spending has not been capped,
but has operated under the PAYGO process, which required that direct spending and
revenue legislation enacted for a fiscal year not cause the deficit to rise or the surplus
to decrease. The lack of caps was due to the fact that most direct spending programs
are open-ended, with spending determined by eligibility rules and payment formulas
in existing law rather than by new legislation.
Budget enforcement depends on timely information concerning the status of
federal revenues and spending. When it acts on legislation, Congress must be
informed of the estimated impact on future budgets. Measuring these impacts often
is referred to as “scoring” or “scorekeeping.” Scoring discretionary spending
measures is a much simpler task than scoring direct spending and revenue legislation.
In the latter case, scoring always is done in reference to baseline projections of future
revenues and spending.
Most appropriations are for a definite amount and the budget authority is
provided for a single fiscal year. The main task is to estimate the outlays that will
derive in the next year and beyond from the budget authority provided in the
appropriations bill. CBO and the Appropriations Committees base these estimates
on outlay (or spendout) rates—the percentage of budget authority that is spent in each
year. These outlay rates vary by account and are based on historical records. For
example, if $1 billion is appropriated to an account which has a spendout rate of 80%
in the first fiscal year that funds become available, the outlay estimate for that fiscal
year will be $800 million; the remaining $200 million will become outlays in
subsequent years.
Scorekeeping is much more complex in enforcing a PAYGO requirement. For
one thing, unlike appropriations, revenue and direct spending legislation usually is
open-ended; it does not specify the amount by which revenue or spending will be
changed. For another, the impact of this type of legislation continues in future years.
In enforcing the statutory PAYGO requirement, Congress had to estimate the revenue
gain or loss for the ensuing five years; under the Senate PAYGO rule, revenue
estimates must cover 10 years. Congress cannot develop the revenue estimates
simply by referring to the text of the legislation being scored. It must also take into
account the behavior of taxpayers, economic conditions, and other factors that affect
revenue collection.
Congress scores revenue and direct spending legislation by reference to baseline
projections issued by CBO, sometimes in cooperation with OMB. The baseline is
an extrapolation of future budget conditions, typically for each of the next five years,
based on the assumption that current policies will continue in effect. The baseline
projections incorporate assumptions about future inflation and workload changes
mandated by law. These projections are made for the budget aggregates as well as
for individual programs and accounts.

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When Congress considers revenue or direct spending legislation, CBO estimates
the amount of revenues or outlays that would ensue if the measure were enacted; in
the case of most revenue legislation, CBO uses estimates prepared by the Joint Tax
Committee. It then compares this amount with the baseline projection to score the
legislation. Thus, the score measures budgetary impact as the difference between the
amount projected under current policies and the amount estimated if the legislation
were enacted. A score is reported for each of the years and often for the sum of the
years as well.
The BEA gave OMB the authority to determine whether offsets or a sequester
were required under the PAYGO rules. However, Congress usually relies on the
CBO score while it is considering legislation. The OMB and CBO scores on
legislation sometimes differ.
In addition to enforcing PAYGO, baseline projections and scoring are used in
computing the amount of deficit reduction agreed to in budget summit negotiations
between the President and Congress and enacted in reconciliation acts.
Budgeting for Direct and Guaranteed Loans
The Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 made fundamental changes in the
budgetary treatment of direct loans and guaranteed loans. The reform, which first
became effective for FY1992, shifted the accounting basis for federally provided or
guaranteed credit from the amount of cash flowing into or out of the Treasury to the
estimated subsidy cost of the loans. Credit reform entails complex procedures for
estimating these subsidy costs and new accounting mechanisms for recording various
loan transactions. The changes have had only a modest impact on budget totals but
a substantial impact on budgeting for particular loan programs.
The new system requires that budget authority and outlays be budgeted for the
estimated subsidy cost of direct and guaranteed loans. This cost is defined in the
1990 act as “the estimated long-term cost to the Government of a direct loan or a loan
guarantee, calculated on a net present value basis, excluding administrative costs ....”
Under the new system, Congress appropriates budget authority or provides
indefinite authority equal to the subsidy cost. This budget authority is placed in a
program account from which funds are disbursed to a financing account.
The Budget Cycle
Federal budgeting is a cyclical activity that begins with the formulation of the
President’s annual budget and concludes with the audit and review of expenditures.
The process spreads over a multi-year period. The main stages are formulation of the
President’s budget, congressional budget actions, implementation of the budget, and
audit and review. While the basic steps continue from year to year, particular
procedures often vary in accord with the style of the President, the economic and
political considerations under which the budget is prepared and implemented, and
other factors.

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The activities related to a single fiscal year usually stretch over a period of two-
and-a-half calendar years (or longer). As the budget is being considered, federal
agencies must deal with three different fiscal years at the same time: implementing
the budget for the current fiscal year; seeking funds from Congress for the next fiscal
year; and planning for the fiscal year after that.
The Presidential Budget Process
The President’s budget, officially referred to as the Budget of the United States
Government, is required by law to be submitted to Congress early in the legislative
session, no later than the first Monday in February. The budget consists of estimates
of spending, revenues, borrowing, and debt; policy and legislative recommendations;
detailed estimates of the financial operations of federal agencies and programs; data
on the actual and projected performance of the economy; and other information
supporting the President’s recommendations.
The President’s budget is only a request to Congress; Congress is not required
to adopt his recommendations. Nevertheless, the power to formulate and submit the
budget is a vital tool in the President’s direction of the executive branch and of
national policy. The President’s proposals often influence congressional revenue and
spending decisions, though the extent of the influence varies from year to year and
depends more on political and fiscal conditions than on the legal status of the budget.
The Constitution does not provide for a budget, nor does it require the President
to make recommendations concerning the revenues and spending of the federal
government. Until 1921, the federal government operated without a comprehensive
presidential budget process. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, as amended,
provides for a national budget system. Its basic requirement is that the President
should prepare and submit a budget to Congress each year. The 1921 act established
the Bureau of the Budget, now named the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
to assist the President in preparing and implementing the executive budget. Although
it has been amended many times, this statute provides the legal basis for the
presidential budget, prescribes much of its content, and defines the roles of the
President and the agencies in the process.
Formulation and Content of the President’s Budget
Preparation of the President’s budget typically begins in the spring (or earlier)
each year, at least nine months before the budget is submitted to Congress, about 17
months before the start of the fiscal year to which it pertains, and about 29 months
before the close of that fiscal year. The early stages of budget preparation occur in
federal agencies. When they begin work on the budget for a fiscal year, agencies
already are implementing the budget for the fiscal year in progress and awaiting final
appropriations actions and other legislative decisions for the fiscal year after that.
The long lead times and the fact that appropriations have not yet been made for the
next year mean that the budget is prepared with a great deal of uncertainty about
economic conditions, presidential policies, and congressional actions.

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As agencies formulate their budgets, they maintain continuing contact with the
OMB examiners assigned to them. These contacts provide agencies with guidance
in preparing their budgets and also enable them to alert OMB to any needs or
problems that may loom ahead. Agency requests are submitted to OMB in late
summer or early fall; these are reviewed by OMB staff in consultation with the
President and his aides. The 1921 Budget and Accounting Act bars agencies from
submitting their budget requests directly to Congress. Moreover, OMB regulations
provide for confidentiality in all budget requests and recommendations prior to the
transmittal of the President’s budget to Congress. However, it is quite common for
internal budget documents to become public while the budget is still being
formulated.
The format and content of the budget are partly determined by law, but the 1921
act authorizes the President to set forth the budget “in such form and detail” as he
may determine. Over the years, there has been an increase in the types of information
and explanatory material presented in the budget documents.
In most years, the budget is submitted as a multi-volume set consisting of a main
document setting forth the President’s message to Congress and an analysis and
justification of his major proposals (the Budget) and supplementary documents
providing account and program level details, historical information, and special
budgetary analyses (the Budget Appendix, Historical Tables, and Analytical
Perspectives
), among other things.
Much of the budget is an estimate of requirements under existing law rather than
a request for congressional action (approximately half of the budget authority in the
budget becomes available without congressional action). The President is required
to submit a budget update (reflecting changed economic conditions, congressional
actions, and other factors), referred to as the Mid-Session Review, by July 15 each
year. The President may revise his recommendations any time during the year.
Executive Interaction With Congress
The President and his budget office have an important role once the budget is
submitted to Congress. OMB officials and other presidential advisors appear before
congressional committees to discuss overall policy and economic issues, but they
generally leave formal discussions of specific programs to the affected agencies.
Agencies thus bear the principal responsibility for defending the President’s program
recommendations at congressional hearings.
Agencies are supposed to justify the President’s recommendations, not their
own. OMB maintains an elaborate legislative clearance process to ensure that agency
budget justifications, testimony, and other submissions are consistent with
presidential policy.
Increasingly in recent years, the President and his chief budgetary aides have
engaged in extensive negotiations with Congress over major budgetary legislation.
These negotiations sometimes have occurred as formal budget “summits” and at
other times as less visible, behind-the-scenes activities.

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The Congressional Budget Process
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 establishes
the congressional budget process as the means by which Congress coordinates the
various budget-related actions (such as the consideration of appropriations and
revenue measures) taken by it during the course of the year. The process is centered
around an annual concurrent resolution on the budget that sets aggregate budget
policies and functional priorities for at least the next five fiscal years.
Because a concurrent resolution is not a law—it cannot be signed or vetoed by
the President—the budget resolution does not have statutory effect; no money can be
raised or spent pursuant to it. The main purpose of the budget resolution is to
establish the framework within which Congress considers separate revenue,
spending, and other budget-related legislation. Revenue and spending amounts set
in the budget resolution establish the basis for the enforcement of congressional
budget policies through points of order. The budget resolution also initiates the
reconciliation process for conforming existing revenue and spending laws to
congressional budget policies.
Formulation and Content of the Budget Resolution
The congressional budget process begins upon the presentation of the
President’s budget in January or February (see Table 1). The timetable set forth in
the 1974 Congressional Budget Act calls for the final adoption of the budget
resolution by April 15, well before the beginning of the new fiscal year on October
1. Although the House and Senate often pass the budget resolution separately before
April 15, they often do not reach final agreement on it until after the
deadline—sometimes months later. The 1974 act bars consideration of revenue,
spending, and debt-limit measures for the upcoming fiscal year until the budget
resolution for that year has been adopted, but certain exceptions are provided (such
as the exception that allows the House to consider the regular appropriations bills
after May 15, even if the budget resolution has not been adopted by then).
The 1974 Congressional Budget Act requires the budget resolution, for each
fiscal year covered, to set forth budget aggregates and spending levels for each
functional category of the budget. The aggregates included in the budget resolution
are as follows:
! total revenues (and the amount by which the total is to be changed
by legislative action);
! total new budget authority and outlays;
! the surplus or deficit; and
! the debt limit.
With regard to each of the functional categories, the budget resolution must
indicate for each fiscal year the amounts of new budget authority and outlays, and
they must add up to the corresponding spending or aggregates.

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Aggregate amounts in the budget resolution do not reflect the revenues or
spending of the Social Security trust funds, although these amounts are set forth
separately in the budget resolution for purposes of Senate enforcement procedures.
The budget resolution does not allocate funds among specific programs or
accounts, but the major program assumptions underlying the functional amounts are
often discussed in the reports accompanying each resolution. Some recent reports
have contained detailed information on the program levels assumed in the resolution.
These assumptions are not binding on the affected committees. Finally, the 1974 act
allows certain additional matters to be included in the budget resolution. The most
important optional feature of a budget resolution is reconciliation directives
(discussed below).
1. Congressional Budget Process Timetable
Deadline
Action to be completed
First Monday in February
President submits budget to Congress.
February 15
CBO submits report on economic and budget
outlook to Budget committees.
Six weeks after President’s
Committees submit reports on views and
budget is submitted
estimates to respective Budget Committee.
April 1
Senate Budget Committee reports budget
resolution.
April 15
Congress completes action on budget resolution.
June 10
House Appropriations Committee reports last
regular appropriations bill.
June 30
House completes action on regular
appropriations bills and any required
reconciliation legislation.
July 15
President submits mid-session review of his
budget to Congress.
October 1
Fiscal year begins.
The House and Senate Budget Committees are responsible for marking up and
reporting the budget resolution. In the course of developing the budget resolution,
the Budget Committees hold hearings, receive “views and estimates” reports from
other committees, and obtain information from CBO. These “views and estimates”
reports of House and Senate committees provide the Budget Committees with
information on the preferences and legislative plans of congressional committees
regarding budgetary matters within their jurisdiction.
CBO assists the Budget Committees in developing the budget resolution by
issuing, early each year, a report on the economic and budget outlook that includes
baseline budget projections. The baseline projections presented in the report are

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supported by more detailed projections for accounts and programs; CBO usually
revises the baseline projections one or more times before the Budget Committees
mark up the budget resolution. In addition, CBO issues a report analyzing the
President’s budgetary proposals in light of CBO’s own economic and technical
assumptions. In past years, CBO also issued an annual report on spending and
revenue options for reducing the deficit or maintaining the surplus.
The extent to which the Budget Committees (and the House and Senate)
consider particular programs when they act on the budget resolution varies from year
to year. Specific program decisions are supposed to be left to the Appropriations
Committees and other committees of jurisdiction, but there is a strong likelihood that
major issues will be discussed in markup, in the Budget Committees’ reports, and
during floor consideration of the budget resolution. Although any programmatic
assumptions generated in this process are not binding on the committees of
jurisdiction, they often influence the final outcome.
Floor consideration of the budget resolution is guided by House and Senate rules
and practices. In the House, the Rules Committee usually reports a special rule (a
simple House resolution), which, once approved, establishes the terms and conditions
under which the budget resolution is considered. This special rule typically specifies
which amendments may be considered and the sequence in which they are to be
offered and voted on. It has been the practice in recent years to allow consideration
of a few amendments (as substitutes for the entire resolution) that present broad
policy choices. In the Senate, the amendment process is less structured, relying on
agreements reached by the leadership through a broad consultative process. The
amendments offered in the Senate may entail major policy choices or may be focused
on a single issue.
Achievement of the policies set forth in the annual budget resolution depends
on the legislative actions taken by Congress (and their approval or disapproval by the
President), the performance of the economy, and technical considerations. Many of
the factors that determine whether budgetary goals will be met are beyond the direct
control of Congress. If economic conditions—growth, employment levels, inflation,
and so forth—vary significantly from projected levels, so too will actual levels of
revenue and spending. Similarly, actual levels may differ substantially if the
technical factors upon which estimates are based, such as the rate at which agencies
spend their discretionary funds or participants become eligible for entitlement
programs, prove faulty.
Budget Resolution Enforcement
Congress’s regular tools for enforcing the budget resolution each year are
overall spending ceilings and revenue floors and committee allocations and
subdivisions of spending. In addition, the Senate has imposed a special PAYGO
requirement on direct spending and revenue legislation and in some years has
enforced discretionary spending limits in the budget resolution, which parallelled the
adjustable limits established in statute and enforced by the sequestration process.
Finally, the House and Senate in recent years have included procedural features in
budget resolutions to limit the use of advance appropriations.

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In order for the enforcement procedures to work, Congress must have access to
complete and up-to-date budgetary information so that it can relate individual
measures to overall budget policies and determine whether adoption of a particular
measure would be consistent with those policies. Substantive and procedural points
of order are designed to obtain congressional compliance with budget rules. A point
of order may bar House or Senate consideration of legislation that violates the
spending ceilings and revenue floors in the budget resolution, committee
subdivisions of spending, or congressional budget procedures.
Budget Resolution Aggregates. In the early years after the 1974
Congressional Budget Act, the principal enforcement mechanism was the ceiling on
total budget authority and outlays and the floor under total revenues set forth in the
budget resolution. The limitations inherent in this mechanism soon became apparent.
For example, the issue of controlling breaches of the spending ceilings usually did
not arise until Congress acted on supplemental appropriations acts, when the fiscal
year was well underway. The emergency nature of the legislation often made it
difficult to uphold the ceilings.
As part of the budget process changes made by the BEA of 1997, the aggregate
levels set in the budget resolution, and the associated discretionary spending limits
and committee spending allocations, may be adjusted periodically for various factors.
The adjustments, as authorized under a new Section 314 of the 1974 Congressional
Budget Act, are made pursuant to the consideration of legislation in several different
categories and were meant to parallel similar adjustments made automatically in the
statutory discretionary spending limits. Adjustments may be triggered by legislation
in several categories, the most important of which is measures containing designated
emergency amounts of discretionary spending, direct spending, or revenues.
Allocations of Spending to Committees. In view of the inadequacies in
the early years of congressional budgeting of relying on enforcement of the budget
totals, Congress changed the focus of enforcement in the 1980s to the committee
allocations and subdivisions of spending made pursuant to Section 302 of the act.
The key to enforcing budget policy is to relate the budgetary impact of individual
pieces of legislation to the overall budget policy. Because Congress operates through
its committee system, an essential step in linking particular measures to the budget
is to allocate the spending amounts set forth in the budget resolution among House
and Senate committees.
Section 302(a) provides for allocations to committees to be made in the
statement of managers accompanying the conference report on the budget resolution.
A Section 302(a) allocation is made to each committee which has jurisdiction over
spending, both for the budget year and the full period covered by the budget
resolution—at least five fiscal years.
The committee allocations do not take into account jurisdiction over
discretionary authorizations funded in annual appropriations acts. The amounts of
new budget authority and outlays allocated to committees in the House or Senate may
not exceed the aggregate amounts of budget authority and outlays set forth in the
budget resolution. Although these allocations are made by the Budget Committees,

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they are not the unilateral preferences of these committees. They are based on
assumptions and understandings developed in the course of formulating the budget
resolution.
After the allocations are made under Section 302(a), the House and Senate
Appropriations Committees subdivide the amounts they receive among their 13
subcommittees, as required by Section 302(b). The subcommittees’ Section 302(b)
subdivisions may not exceed the total amount allocated to the committee. Each
Appropriations Committee reports its subdivisions to its respective chamber; the
appropriations bills may not be considered until such a report has been filed.
Scoring and Cost Estimates. As mentioned previously, scoring (also
called scorekeeping) is the process of measuring the budgetary effects of pending and
enacted legislation and assessing its impact on a budget plan—in this case, the budget
resolution. In the congressional budget process, scoring serves several broad
purposes. First, scoring informs Members of Congress and the public about the
budgetary consequences of their actions. When a budgetary measure is under
consideration, scoring information lets Members know whether adopting the
amendment or passing the bill at hand would breach the budget. Further, scoring
information enables Members to judge what must be done in upcoming legislative
action to achieve the year’s budgetary goals. Finally, scoring is designed to assist
Congress in enforcing its budget plans. In this regard, scorekeeping is used largely
to determine whether points of order under the 1974 act may be sustained against
legislation violating budget resolution levels.
The principal scorekeepers for Congress are the House and Senate Budget
Committees, which provide the presiding officers of their respective chambers with
the estimates needed to determine if legislation violates the aggregate levels in the
budget resolution or the committee subdivisions of spending. The Budget
Committees make summary scoring reports available to Members on a frequent
basis, usually geared to the pace of legislative activity. CBO assists Congress in
these activities by preparing cost estimates of legislation, which are included in
committee reports, and scoring reports for the Budget committees. The Joint
Committee on Taxation supports Congress by preparing estimates of the budgetary
impact of revenue legislation.
Points of Order. The 1974 Congressional Budget Act provides for both
substantive and procedural points of order to block violations of budget resolution
policies and congressional budget procedures. One element of substantive
enforcement is based on Section 311 of the act, which bars Congress from
considering legislation that would cause total revenues to fall below the level set in
the budget resolution or total new budget authority or total outlays to exceed the
budgeted level. The House and Senate both enforce the spending ceilings for the first
fiscal year only; the revenue floor, however, is enforced for the first fiscal year and
the full number of fiscal years covered by the budget resolution.
In the House (but not the Senate), Section 311 does not apply to spending
legislation if the committee reporting the measure has stayed within its allocation of
new discretionary budget authority. Accordingly, the House may take up any

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spending measure that is within the appropriate committee allocations, even if it
would cause total spending to be exceeded. Neither chamber bars spending
legislation that would cause functional allocations in the budget resolution to be
exceeded.
Section 302(f) of the 1974 act bars the House and Senate from considering any
spending measure that would cause the relevant committee’s spending allocations to
be exceeded; in the House, the point of order applies only to violations of allocations
of new discretionary budget authority. Further, the point of order also applies to
suballocations of spending made by the Appropriations Committees.
In addition to points of order to enforce compliance with the budget resolution
and the allocations and subdivisions made pursuant to it, the 1974 act contains points
of order to ensure compliance with its procedures. Perhaps the most important of
these is Section 303, which bars consideration of any revenue, spending, entitlement,
or debt-limit measure prior to adoption of the budget resolution. However, the rules
of the House permit it to consider regular appropriations bills after May 15, even if
the budget resolution has not yet been adopted.
When the House or Senate considers a revenue or a spending measure, the
chairman of the respective Budget Committee sometimes makes a statement advising
the chamber as to whether the measure violates any of these points of order. If no
point of order is made, or if the point of order is waived, the House or Senate may
consider a measure despite any violations of the 1974 act. The House often waives
points of order by adopting a special rule. The Senate may waive points of order by
unanimous consent or by motion under Section 904 of the act. The Senate requires
a three-fifths vote of the membership to waive certain provisions of the act.
In two instances, in 1998 (for FY1999) and 2002 (for FY2003), the House and
Senate failed to reach agreement on a budget resolution. On these occasions, one or
both houses agreed to their own “deeming resolutions,” which established the basis
for enforcing points of order under the 1974 act in that house only.
The Sequestration Process
Sequestration involved the issuance of a presidential order that permanently
cancelled budgetary resources (except for revolving funds, special funds, trust funds,
and certain offsetting collections) for the purpose of achieving a required amount of
outlay savings to reduce the deficit. Once sequestration was triggered by an
executive determination, spending reductions were made automatically; this process,
therefore, was regarded by many as providing a strong incentive for Congress and the
President to reach agreement on legislation that would avoid a sequester.
From its inception in 1985 until its revision by the Budget Enforcement Act
(BEA) in 1990, the process was tied solely to the enforcement of fixed deficit targets.
The BEA changed the sequestration process substantially. First, it effectively
eliminated the deficit targets as a factor in budget enforcement. Second, the BEA
established adjustable limits on discretionary spending funded in the annual
appropriations process. Third, the BEA created pay-as-you-go procedures to require

CRS-18
that increases in direct spending (i.e., spending controlled outside of the annual
appropriations process) or decreases in revenues due to legislative action were offset
so that there was effectively no net increase in the deficit or reduction of the surplus.
The BEA established adjustable limits on discretionary spending for FY1991-
1995. These limits were extended through FY1998 in 1993. The Budget
Enforcement Act (BEA) of 1997 revised the limits for FY1998 and provided new
limits through FY2002. The limits were established for the following categories of
discretionary spending: defense and nondefense, for FY1998-1999; discretionary (a
single, general purpose category), for FY2000-2002; and violent crime reduction, for
FY1998-2000. In 1998, as part of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century,
separate categories were added for highway and mass transit spending. Finally, a
spending conservation category was added in 2000. The limits expired a the end of
FY2002, and it is unclear at this point whether the 108th Congress will decide to
revive them.
The discretionary spending limits had to be adjusted periodically by the
President for various factors, including (among others), changes in concepts and
definitions, a special outlay allowance (to accommodate estimating differences
between OMB and CBO), and the enactment of legislation providing emergency
funding and funding for the International Monetary Fund, international arrearages,
an earned income tax credit compliance initiative, and other specially-designated
purposes.
Under the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) process created by the BEA, legislation
increasing direct spending or decreasing revenues for a fiscal year had to be offset so
that the balance on the PAYGO scorecard for that year did not fall below zero. The
PAYGO process did not require any offsetting action when the spending increase or
revenue decrease was due to the operation of existing law, such as an increase in the
number of persons participating in the Medicare program. Direct spending consists
largely of spending for entitlement programs. Most direct spending and revenue
programs are established under permanent law, so there is not necessarily any need
for recurring legislative action on them (and the PAYGO process did not require such
action).
The PAYGO process did not preclude Congress from enacting legislation to
increase direct spending; it only required that the increase be offset by reductions in
other direct spending programs (which could include increases in offsetting receipts),
by increases in revenues, or by a combination of the two in order to avoid a sequester.
If a sequester under this process was required, it would have had to offset the amount
of any net deficit increase (or surplus reduction) for the fiscal year caused by the
enactment of legislation in the current and prior sessions of Congress, and would
have been applied to nonexempt direct spending programs.
Spending for Social Security benefits and federal deposit insurance
commitments, as well as emergency direct spending and revenue legislation (so
designated by both the President and by Congress), was exempted completely from
the PAYGO sequestration process. All remaining direct spending programs were
covered by the PAYGO process to the extent that legislation affecting their spending
levels was counted in determining whether a net increase or decrease in the deficit

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has occurred for a fiscal year. If a PAYGO sequester had occurred, however, many
direct spending programs would have been exempt from reduction.
In 1997, coverage of the PAYGO requirement was extended to legislation
enacted through FY2002; however, the PAYGO process was slated to remain in
effect through FY2006 to deal with the outyear effects of such measures.
Consequently, a PAYGO sequester could have occurred in FY2003-2006 based on
legislation enacted before the end of FY2002. At the end of the 107th Congress,
legislation was enacted setting all of the remaining PAYGO balances to zero,
effectively terminating the PAYGO requirement.
The multiple sequestration procedures established by the BEA remained
automatic, to be triggered by a report from the OMB director. For sequestration
purposes generally, there was only one triggering report issued each year (just after
the end of the congressional session), but preliminary and update sequestration
reports were issued earlier in the session. Additionally, OMB reports triggering a
sequester for discretionary spending could be issued during the following session if
legislative developments so warranted (i.e., the enactment of supplemental
appropriations). The CBO director was required to provide advisory sequestration
reports, shortly before the OMB director’s reports were due.
Sequestration procedures could be suspended in the event a declaration of war
was enacted or if Congress enacted a special joint resolution triggered by the issuance
of a CBO report indicating “low growth” in the economy. Also, there were several
special procedures under the act by which the final sequestration order for a fiscal
year could be modified or the implementation of the order affected.
Spending Legislation
The spending policies of the budget resolution generally are implemented
through two different types of spending legislation. Policies involving discretionary
spending are implemented in the context of annual appropriations acts, whereas
policies affecting direct or mandatory spending (which, for the most part, involves
entitlement programs) are carried out in substantive legislation.
All discretionary spending is under the jurisdiction of the House and Senate
Appropriations Committees. Direct spending is under the jurisdiction of the various
legislative committees of the House and Senate; the House Ways and Means
Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have the largest shares of direct
spending jurisdiction. (Some entitlement programs, such as Medicaid, are funded in
annual appropriations acts, but such spending is not considered to be discretionary.)
The enforcement procedures under the congressional budget process, mentioned
above, apply equally to discretionary and direct spending.
In recent years, many of the most significant changes in direct spending
programs, from a budgetary standpoint, have been made in the reconciliation process
(see discussion below). The greatest number of spending decisions in any year
occurs in the annual appropriations process.

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Authorizing Measures
The rules of the House and (to a lesser extent) the Senate require that agencies
and programs be authorized in law before an appropriation is made for them. An
authorizing act is a law that: (1) establishes a program or agency and the terms and
conditions under which it operates; and (2) authorizes the enactment of
appropriations for that program or agency. Authorizing legislation may originate in
either the House or the Senate and may be considered any time during the year.
Many agencies and programs have temporary authorizations that have to be renewed
annually or every few years.
Action on appropriations measures sometimes is delayed by the failure of
Congress to enact necessary authorizing legislation. The House and Senate often
waive or disregard their rules against unauthorized appropriations for ongoing
programs that have not yet been reauthorized.
The budgetary impact of authorizing legislation depends on whether it contains
only discretionary authorizations (for which funding is provided in annual
appropriations acts) or direct spending, which itself enables an agency to enter into
obligations.
The Annual Appropriations Process
An appropriations act is a law passed by Congress that provides federal agencies
legal authority to incur obligations and the Treasury Department authority to make
payments for designated purposes. The power of appropriation derives from the
Constitution, which in Article I, Section 9, provides that “[n]o money shall be drawn
from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” The power
to appropriate is exclusively a legislative power; it functions as a limitation on the
executive branch. An agency may not spend more than the amount appropriated to
it, and it may use available funds only for the purposes and according to the
conditions provided by Congress.
The Constitution does not require annual appropriations, but since the First
Congress the practice has been to make appropriations for a single fiscal year.
Appropriations must be used (obligated) in the fiscal year for which they are
provided, unless the law provides that they shall be available for a longer period of
time. All provisions in an appropriations act, such as limitations on the use of funds,
expire at the end of the fiscal year, unless the language of the act extends their period
of effectiveness.
The President requests annual appropriations in his budget submitted each year.
In support of the President’s appropriations requests, agencies submit justification
materials to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. These materials
provide considerably more detail than is contained in the President’s budget and are
used in support of agency testimony during Appropriations subcommittee hearings
on the President’s budget.

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Congress passes three main types of appropriations measures. Regular
appropriations acts provide budget authority to agencies for the next fiscal year.
Supplemental appropriations acts provide additional budget authority during the
current fiscal year when the regular appropriation is insufficient or to finance
activities not provided for in the regular appropriation. Continuing appropriations
acts provide stop-gap (or full-year) funding for agencies that have not received a
regular appropriation.
In a typical session, Congress acts on 13 regular appropriations bills and at least
two supplemental appropriations measures. Because of recurring delays in the
appropriations process, Congress also typically passes one or more continuing
appropriations each year. The scope and duration of these measures depend on the
status of the regular appropriations bills and the degree of budgetary conflict between
the President and Congress. In recent years, Congress has on several occasions
merged two or more of the regular appropriations acts for a fiscal year into a single,
omnibus appropriations act.
By precedent, appropriations originate in the House of Representatives. In the
House, appropriations measures are originated by the Appropriations Committee
(when it marks up or reports the measure) rather than being introduced by a Member
beforehand. Before the full Committee acts on the bill, it is considered in the
relevant Appropriations subcommittee (the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees have 13 parallel subcommittees). The House subcommittees typically
hold extensive hearings on appropriations requests shortly after the President’s
budget is submitted. In marking up their appropriations bills, the various
subcommittees are guided by the discretionary spending limits and the allocations
made to them under Section 302 of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act.
The Senate usually considers appropriations measures after they have been
passed by the House. When House action on appropriations bills is delayed,
however, the Senate sometimes expedites its actions by considering a Senate-
numbered bill up to the stage of final passage. Upon receipt of the House-passed bill
in the Senate, it is amended with the text that the Senate already has agreed to (as a
single amendment) and then passed by the Senate. Hearings in the Senate
Appropriations subcommittees generally are not as extensive as those held by
counterpart subcommittees in the House.
The basic unit of an appropriation is an account. A single unnumbered
paragraph in an appropriations act comprises one account and all provisions of that
paragraph pertain to that account and to no other, unless the text expressly gives them
broader scope. Any provision limiting the use of funds enacted in that paragraph is
a restriction on that account alone.
Over the years, appropriations have been consolidated into a relatively small
number of accounts. It is typical for a federal agency to have a single account for all
its expenses of operation and additional accounts for other purposes such as
construction. Accordingly, most appropriation accounts encompass a number of
activities or projects. The appropriation sometimes earmarks specific amounts to
particular activities within the account, but the more common practice is to provide

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detailed information on the amounts intended for each activity in other sources
(principally, the committee reports accompanying the measures).
In addition to the substantive limitations (and other provisions) associated with
each account, each appropriations act has “general provisions” that apply to all of the
accounts in a title or in the whole act. These general provisions appear as numbered
sections, usually at the end of the title or the act.
The standard appropriation is for a single fiscal year—the funds have to be
obligated during the fiscal year for which they are provided; they lapse if not
obligated by the end of that year. An appropriation that does not mention the period
during which the funds are to be available is a one-year appropriation. Congress also
makes no-year appropriations by specifying that the funds shall remain available until
expended. No-year funds are carried over to future years, even if they have not been
obligated. Congress sometimes makes multiyear appropriations, which provide for
funds to be available for two or more fiscal years.
Appropriations measures also contain other types of provisions that serve
specialized purposes. These include provisions that liquidate (pay off) obligations
made pursuant to certain contract authority; reappropriate funds provided in previous
years; transfer funds from one account to another; rescind funds (or release deferred
funds); or set ceilings on the amount of obligations that can be made under
permanent appropriations, on the amount of direct or guaranteed loans that can be
made, or on the amount of administrative expenses that can be incurred during the
fiscal year. In addition to providing funds, appropriations acts often contain
substantive limitations on government agencies.
Detailed information on how funds are to be spent, along with other directives
or guidance, is provided in the reports accompanying the various appropriations
measures. Agencies ordinarily abide by report language in spending the funds
appropriated by Congress.
The appropriations reports do not comment on every item of expenditure.
Report language is most likely when the Appropriations Committee prefers to spend
more or less on a particular item than the President has requested or when the
committee wants to earmark funds for a particular project or activity. When a
particular item is mentioned by the committee, there is a strong expectation that the
agency will adhere to the instructions.
Revenue Legislation
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to levy “taxes,
duties, imposts, and excises.” Section 7 of this article requires that all revenue
measures originate in the House of Representatives.
In the House, revenue legislation is under the jurisdiction of the Ways and
Means Committee; in the Senate, jurisdiction is held by the Finance Committee.
While House rules bar other committees from reporting revenue legislation,
sometimes another committee will report legislation levying user fees on a class that

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benefits from a particular service or program or that is being regulated by a federal
agency. In many of these cases, the user fee legislation is referred subsequently to
the Ways and Means Committee.
Most revenues derive from existing provisions of the tax code or Social Security
law, which continue in effect from year to year unless changed by Congress. This tax
structure can be expected to produce increasing amounts of revenue in future years
as the economy expands and incomes rise. Nevertheless, Congress usually makes
some changes in the tax laws each year, either to raise or lower revenues or to
redistribute the tax burden.
Congress typically acts on revenue legislation pursuant to proposals in the
President’s budget. An early step in congressional work on revenue legislation is
publication by CBO of its own estimates (developed in consultation with the Joint
Tax Committee) of the revenue impact of the President’s budget proposals. The
congressional estimates often differ significantly from those presented in the
President’s budget.
The revenue totals in the budget resolution establish the framework for
subsequent action on revenue measures. The budget resolution contains only revenue
totals and total recommended changes; it does not allocate these totals among
revenue sources (although it does set out Medicare receipts separately), nor does it
specify which provisions of the tax code are to be changed.
The House and Senate periodically consider major revenue measures, such as
the Tax Reform Act of 1986, under their regular legislative procedures. However,
as has been the case with direct spending programs, many of the most significant
changes in revenue policy in recent years have been made in the context of the
reconciliation process. Although revenue changes usually are incorporated into
omnibus budget reconciliation measures, along with spending changes (and
sometimes debt-limit increases), such revenue legislation may be considered on a
separate legislative track (e.g., the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982).
In enacting revenue legislation, Congress often establishes or alters tax
expenditures. The term “tax expenditures” is defined in the 1974 Congressional
Budget Act to include revenue losses due to deductions, exemptions, credits, and
other exceptions to the basic tax structure. Tax expenditures are a means by which
the federal government pursues public policy objectives and can be regarded as
alternatives to other policy instruments such as grants or loans. The Joint Tax
Committee estimates the revenue effects of legislation changing tax expenditures,
and it also publishes five-year projections of these provisions as an annual committee
print.
Debt-Limit Legislation
When the revenues collected by the federal government are not sufficient to
cover its expenditures, it must finance the shortfall through borrowing. Federal
borrowing is subject to a public debt limit established by statute. When the federal
government operates with a budget deficit, the public debt limit must be increased

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periodically. The frequency of congressional action to raise the debt limit has ranged
in the past from several times in one year to once in several years. When the federal
government incurred large and growing surpluses in recent years, Congress did not
have to increase the debt limit, but the enactment of increases in the debt limit has
again become necessary with the recurrence of deficits.
Legislation to raise the public debt limit falls under the jurisdiction of the House
Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. Although
consideration of such measures in the House usually is constrained through the use
of special rules, Senate action sometimes is far-ranging with regard to the issues
covered. In the past, the Senate has added many non-germane provisions to debt-
limit measures, such as the 1985 Balanced Budget Act.
In 1979, the House amended its rules to provide for the automatic engrossment
of a measure increasing the debt limit upon final adoption of the conference report
on the budget resolution. The rule, House Rule XLIX (commonly referred to as the
Gephardt rule), was intended to facilitate quick action on debt increases. However,
the Senate had no comparable rule. For years, the House and Senate could enact
debt-limit legislation originating under the Gephardt rule or arising under
conventional legislative procedures. During the past decade, Congress has enacted
debt-limit increases as part of omnibus budget reconciliation measures, continuing
appropriations acts, and other legislation. The House recodified the Gephardt rule
as House Rule XXIII at the beginning of the 106th Congress, repealed it at the
beginning of the 107th Congress, and reinstated it, as new Rule XXVII, at the
beginning of the 108th Congress.
Reconciliation Legislation
Beginning in 1980, Congress has used reconciliation legislation to implement
many of its most significant budget policies. Section 310 of the 1974 Congressional
Budget Act sets forth a special procedure for the development and consideration of
reconciliation legislation. Reconciliation legislation is used by Congress to bring
existing revenue and spending law into conformity with the policies in the budget
resolution. Reconciliation is an optional process, but Congress has used it more
years than not; during the period beginning with 1980, more than a dozen
reconciliation measures were enacted into law and several were vetoed.
The reconciliation process has two stages—the adoption of reconciliation
instructions in the budget resolution and the enactment of reconciliation legislation
that implements changes in revenue or spending laws. Although reconciliation has
been used since 1980, specific procedures tend to vary from year to year.
Reconciliation is used to change the amount of revenues, budget authority, or
outlays generated by existing law. In a few instances, reconciliation has been used
to adjust the public debt limit. On the spending side, the process focuses on
entitlement laws; it may not be used, however, to impel changes in Social Security
law. Reconciliation sometimes has been applied to discretionary authorizations
(which are funded in annual appropriations acts), but this is not the usual practice.

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Reconciliation Directives
Reconciliation begins with a directive in a budget resolution instructing
designated committees to report legislation changing existing law or pending
legislation. These instructions have three components: (1) they name the committee
(or committees) that are directed to report legislation; (2) they specify the amounts
by which existing laws are to be changed (but do not identify how these changes are
to be made, which laws are to be altered, or the programs to be affected); and (3) they
usually set a deadline by which the designated committees are to recommend the
changes in law. The instructions typically cover the same fiscal years covered by the
budget resolution. Recent budget resolutions have provided for more than one
reconciliation measure to be considered during a session.
The dollar amounts are computed with reference to the CBO baseline. Thus, a
change represents the amount by which revenues or spending would decrease or
increase from baseline levels as a result of changes made in existing law. This
computation is itself based on assumptions about the future level of revenues or
spending under current law (or policy) and about the dollar changes that would ensue
from new legislation. Hence, the savings associated with the reconciliation process
are assumed savings. The actual changes in revenues or spending may differ from
those estimated when the reconciliation instructions are formulated.
Although the instructions do not mention the programs to be changed, they are
based on assumptions as to the savings or deficit reduction (or, in some cases,
increases) that would result from particular changes in revenue provisions or
spending programs. These program assumptions are sometimes printed in the reports
on the budget resolution. Even when the assumptions are not published, committees
and Members usually have a good idea of the specific program changes contemplated
by the reconciliation instructions.
A committee has discretion to decide on the legislative changes to be
recommended. It is not bound by the program changes recommended or assumed by
the Budget Committees in the reports accompanying the budget resolution. Further,
a committee has to recommend legislation estimated to produce dollar changes for
each category delineated in the instructions to it.
When a budget resolution containing a reconciliation instruction has been
approved by Congress, the instruction has the status of an order by the House and
Senate to designated committees to recommend legislation, usually by a date certain.
It is expected that committees will carry out the instructions of their parent chamber,
but the 1974 Congressional Budget Act does not provide any sanctions against
committees that fail to do so.
Development and Consideration of Reconciliation Measures
When more than one committee in the House and Senate is subject to
reconciliation directives, the proposed legislative changes usually are consolidated
by the Budget Committees into an omnibus bill. The 1974 Congressional Budget Act
does not permit the Budget Committees to revise substantively the legislation

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recommended by the committees of jurisdiction. This restriction pertains even when
the Budget Committees estimate that the proposed legislation will fall short of the
dollar changes called for in the instructions. Sometimes, the Budget Committees,
working with the leadership, develop alternatives to the committee recommendations,
to be offered as floor amendments, so as to achieve greater compliance with the
reconciliation directives.
The 1974 act requires that amendments offered to reconciliation legislation in
either the House or the Senate be deficit neutral. To meet this requirement, an
amendment reducing revenues or increasing spending must offset these deficit
increases by equivalent revenue increases or spending cuts.
During the first several years’ experience with reconciliation, the legislation
contained many provisions that were extraneous to the purpose of reducing the
deficit. The reconciliation submissions of committees included such things as
provisions that had no budgetary effect, that increased spending or reduced revenues,
or that violated another committee’s jurisdiction.
In 1985, the Senate adopted a rule (commonly referred to as the Byrd rule) on
a temporary basis as a means of curbing these practices. The Byrd rule has been
extended and modified several times over the years. In 1990, the Byrd rule was
incorporated into the 1974 Congressional Budget Act as Section 313 and made
permanent.
Although the House has no rule comparable to the Senate’s Byrd rule, it may
use other devices to control the inclusion of extraneous matter in reconciliation
legislation. In particular, the House has used special rules to make in order
amendments that strike such matter.
Impoundment and Line-Item Veto
Impoundment
Although an appropriation limits the amounts that can be spent, it also
establishes the expectation that the available funds will be used to carry out
authorized activities. Therefore, when an agency fails to use all or part of an
appropriation, it deviates from the intentions of Congress. The Impoundment
Control Act of 1974 prescribes rules and procedures for instances in which available
funds are impounded.
An impoundment is an action or inaction by the President or a federal agency
that delays or withholds the obligation or expenditure of budget authority provided
in law. The 1974 Impoundment Control Act divides impoundments into two
categories and establishes distinct procedures for each. A deferral delays the use of
funds; a rescission is a presidential request that Congress rescind (cancel) an
appropriation or other form of budget authority. Deferral and rescission are exclusive
and comprehensive categories; an impoundment is either a rescission or a deferral —
it cannot be both or something else.

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Although impoundments are defined broadly by the 1974 act, in practice they
are limited to major actions that affect the level or rate of expenditure. As a general
practice, only deliberate curtailments of expenditure are reported as impoundments;
actions having other purposes that incidently affect the rate of spending are not
recorded as impoundments. For example, if an agency were to delay the award of a
contract because of a dispute with a vendor, the delay would not be an impoundment;
if the delay were for the purpose of reducing an expenditure, it would be an
impoundment. The line between routine administrative actions and impoundments
is not clear and controversy occasionally arises as to whether a particular action
constitutes an impoundment.
Rescissions. To propose a rescission, the President must submit a message
to Congress specifying the amount to be rescinded, the accounts and programs
involved, the estimated fiscal and program effects, and the reasons for the rescission.
Multiple rescissions can be grouped in a single message. After the message has been
submitted to it, Congress has 45 days of “continuous session” (usually a larger
number of calendar days) during which it can pass a rescission bill. Congress may
rescind all, part, or none of the amount proposed by the President.
If Congress does not approve a rescission in legislation by the expiration of this
period, the President must make the funds available for obligation and expenditure.
If the President fails to release funds at the expiration of the 45-day period for
proposed rescissions, the comptroller general may bring suit to compel their release.
This has been a rare occurrence, however.
Deferrals. To defer funds, the President submits a message to Congress setting
forth the amount, the affected account and program, the reasons for the deferral, the
estimated fiscal and program effects, and the period of time during which the funds
are to be deferred. The President may not propose a deferral for a period of time
beyond the end of the fiscal year, nor may he propose a deferral that would cause the
funds to lapse or otherwise prevent an agency from spending appropriated funds
prudently. In accounts where unobligated funds remain available beyond the fiscal
year, the President may defer the funds again in the next fiscal year.
At present, the President may defer only for the reasons set forth in the
Antideficiency Act, including to provide for contingencies, to achieve savings made
possible by or through changes in requirements or greater efficiency of operations,
and as specifically provided by law. He may not defer funds for policy reasons (for
example, to curtail overall federal spending or because he is opposed to a particular
program).
The comptroller general reviews all proposed rescissions and deferrals and
advises Congress of their legality and possible budgetary and program effects. The
comptroller general also notifies Congress of any rescission or deferral not reported
by the President and may reclassify an improperly classified impoundment. In all
cases, a notification to Congress by the comptroller general has the same legal effect
as an impoundment message of the President.

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The 1974 Impoundment Control Act provides for special types of
legislation—rescission bills and deferral resolutions—for Congress to use in
exercising its impoundment control powers. However, pursuant to court decisions
that held the legislative veto to be unconstitutional, Congress may not use deferral
resolutions to disapprove a deferral. Further, Congress has been reluctant to use
rescission bills regularly. Congress, instead, usually acts on impoundment matters
within the framework of the annual appropriations measures.
Line-Item Veto
During the 104th Congress, the Line Item Veto Act (P.L. 104-130) was enacted
as an amendment to the 1974 Impoundment Control Act. The Supreme Court ruled
the Line Item Veto Act unconstitutional in June 1998.
The authority granted to the President under the Line Item Veto Act differed
markedly from the veto authority available to most chief executives at the state level.
First, the President could not veto individual parts of legislation submitted for his
approval. Under normal constitutional procedures, the President must approve or
veto any measure in its entirety. His authority to use the line-item veto came into
play only after a measure had been signed into law. Second, this authority applied
not only to annual appropriations, but extended to new entitlement spending and
targeted tax benefits as well. The line-item veto authority was intended to be in
effect for 8 years, from the beginning of 1997 through the end of 2004.
The Line Item Veto Act reversed the presumption underlying the process for the
consideration of rescissions under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act. Under the
Line Item Veto Act, presidential proposals would take effect unless overturned by
legislative action. The act authorized the President to identify at enactment
individual items in legislation that he proposed not go into effect. The identification
was based not just upon the statutory language, but on the entire legislative history
and documentation. The President had to notify Congress promptly of his proposals
and provide supporting information. Congress had to respond within a limited period
of time by enacting a law if it wanted to disapprove the President’s proposals;
otherwise, they would take effect permanently.
President Clinton exercised the line-item veto authority several times during the
1997 session before the act was declared unconstitutional.