This report responds to frequently asked questions about legislative branch appropriations. Frequently asked questions include the items that are funded within this bill; development, presentation, and consideration of the legislative branch budget requests; the legislative branch budget in historical perspective; and recent actions.
For additional information, including information on the most recent legislative branch appropriations act, see CRS Report R44029, Legislative Branch: FY2016 Appropriations, by [author name scrubbed].
In addition to the Senate and House of Representatives, the legislative branch bill typically funds Joint Items, including the Joint Economic Committee, Joint Committee on Taxation, Office of the Attending Physician, and Office of Congressional Accessibility Services; Capitol Police; Office of Compliance; Congressional Budget Office (CBO); Architect of the Capitol (AOC); Library of Congress (LOC), including the Congressional Research Service (CRS); Government Publishing Office (GPO); Government Accountability Office (GAO); and Open World Leadership Center.
Table 1 provides information on the enacted funding levels provided for the legislative branch from FY2006-FY2016. The table includes annual and supplemental appropriations, rescissions, and the FY2013 sequestration.
Table 1. Legislative Branch Appropriations, FY2006-FY2016:
Current and Constant Dollars
(budget authority in billions of dollars)
|
Fiscal Year |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
|
Current Dollars |
3.793 |
3.852 |
3.970 |
4.501 |
4.669 |
4.543 |
4.307 |
4.061 |
4.259 |
4.300 |
4.363 |
|
Constant (2016) Dollars |
4.547 |
4.505 |
4.490 |
5.076 |
5.187 |
4.940 |
4.586 |
4.261 |
4.405 |
4.385 |
4.363 |
Source: Congressional Research Service analysis of regular and annual appropriations acts and accompanying materials. For further details on these totals, see Table 3 in CRS Report R44029, Legislative Branch: FY2016 Appropriations, by [author name scrubbed].
Notes: These figures exclude permanent budget authorities and contain supplementals, rescissions, and the FY2013 sequestration. Permanent budget authorities, including funding for Member pay, are not included in the annual legislative branch appropriations acts but are automatically funded each year. Constant 2016 dollars calculated using the "Total Non-Defense" deflator in Table 10.1—Gross Domestic Product and Deflators Used in the Historical Tables: 1940–2021 in the President's FY2017 budget request.
Table 2 provides information on funding levels for the Senate, House of Representatives, and legislative branch agencies in recent years as well as the levels requested for FY2017. For additional information on selected accounts, see tables 5-9 in CRS Report R44029, Legislative Branch: FY2016 Appropriations, by [author name scrubbed].
Table 2. Legislative Branch Appropriations: Recent Enacted and Requested Levels
(in thousands of dollars)
|
Entity |
FY2014 |
FY2015 |
FY2016 |
FY2017 Requested |
|
Senate |
$859,293 |
$864,286 |
$870,159 |
$935,483 |
|
House of Representatives |
1,180,908 |
1,180,735 |
1,180,909 |
1,187,310 |
|
18,994 |
19,056 |
21,010 |
||
|
Capitol Police |
338,459 |
347,959 |
375,000 |
409,588 |
|
Office of Compliance |
3,868 |
3,959 |
3,959 |
4,315 |
|
Congressional Budget Office |
45,700 |
45,700 |
46,500 |
47,637 |
|
Architect of the Capitol |
602,030 |
600,261 |
612,904 |
694,301 |
|
Library of Congress, Including CRS |
578,982 |
590,921 |
599,912 |
667,215 |
|
Congressional Research Service |
105,350 |
106,945 |
106,945 |
114,408 |
|
Government Publishing Office |
119,300 |
119,993 |
117,068 |
117,068 |
|
Government Accountability Office |
505,383 |
522,000 |
531,000 |
567,825 |
|
Open World Leadership Center |
6,000 |
5,700 |
5,600 |
5,800 |
|
Stennis Center for Public Service |
430 |
430 |
430 |
430 |
|
Other Adjustment |
-1,000 |
-1,000 |
-1,000 |
0 |
|
Title II: General Provisions |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Total Legislative Branch |
$4,258,347 |
$4,300,000 |
$4,363,172 |
$4,657,982 |
Source: P.L. 113-76, P.L. 113-235, P.L. 114-113, explanatory materials for FY2014, FY2015, and FY2016 inserted into the Congressional Record, and the FY2017 budget request.
Notes:
a. "Joint Items" generally contains funding for the Joint Economic Committee, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Office of the Attending Physician, and the Office of Congressional Accessibility Services. In fiscal years prior to an inauguration, it also contains funding for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (e.g., $1.25 million for FY2016).
The President has no formal role in the development of the legislative branch budget request, even though it is included in the President's annual budget request documents.
By long-standing law and practice, the legislative branch request and any supplemental requests are submitted to the President and included in the budget without change.1 While the executive branch budget submissions generally involve interaction between an agency and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the legislative branch requests do not. The executive branch does not review or maintain documentation in support of the legislative branch requests.2
Since at least FY1976, the legislative branch as a proportion of total discretionary budget authority has remained approximately 0.4%.3 Discretionary budget authority is provided and controlled by the annual appropriations acts.
Since FY1976, the legislative branch as a proportion of total budget authority (mandatory and discretionary) has averaged 0.2%.4 Total budget authority includes both budget authority controlled by the annual appropriations acts and budget authority controlled by previous laws, including entitlements.
The legislative branch was funded within Division I of the FY2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 114-113). According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate, the legislative branch division comprised approximately 0.4% of total discretionary budget authority and 0.8% of nondefense discretionary budget authority provided by this act.5
No, salaries for Members of Congress are neither funded nor increased in the legislative branch bill.
Member salaries have been included as mandatory spending since FY1983, and the amount of potential Member pay adjustments is calculated pursuant to the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, which established a formula based on changes in the Employment Cost Index (ECI).6 The adjustment automatically takes effect unless (1) Congress statutorily prohibits the adjustment; (2) Congress statutorily revises the adjustment; or (3) the annual base pay adjustment of General Schedule (GS) federal employees is established at a rate less than the scheduled increase for Members, in which case the percentage adjustment for Member pay is automatically lowered to match the percentage adjustment in GS base pay.
The FY2015 and FY2016 consolidated appropriations acts both included a provision, previously included in the legislative branch appropriations bills, prohibiting the automatic annual adjustment. In other years, provisions to prohibit the automatic adjustments have been discussed during consideration of the appropriations bill funding the U.S. Treasury—currently the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill. Although discussion of Member pay is often associated with appropriations bills, these bills do not contain language funding or increasing Member pay, and a prohibition on the automatic annual Member pay adjustments could be included in any bill, or be introduced as a separate bill. For a list of the laws that have previously contained provisions prohibiting the annual pay adjustments, see "Table 3. Legislative Vehicles Used for Pay Prohibitions, Enacted Dates, and Pay Language" in CRS Report 97-1011, Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables, by [author name scrubbed].
In contrast, the salaries and benefits for legislative branch employees are provided by the legislative branch acts, although they generally do not address pay adjustments.7
The House and Senate both consider funding levels for the legislative branch agencies and joint entities. By long-standing tradition, however, the House bill does not propose funding levels for Senate items, including the account that funds the Senate and the Senate office buildings account within the Architect of the Capitol.8 Similarly, the Senate does not comment on House items, including the account that funds the House or the House office buildings account within the Architect of the Capitol. The House, Senate, and conference reports on legislative branch appropriations bills regularly contain language illustrating the deference of each chamber to the internal practices of the other.9 If comparing the House and Senate bill totals, or the total provided to the Architect of the Capitol at different stages of consideration, adjustments may be necessary to address any omissions due to this practice.
Author Contact Information
| 1. |
Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 1105, "Estimated expenditures and proposed appropriations for the legislative branch and the judicial branch to be included in each budget ... shall be submitted to the President ... and included in the budget by the President without change." Division C of the FY2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 112-74) added language to 31 U.S.C. 1107 relating to budget amendments, stating: "The President shall transmit promptly to Congress without change, proposed deficiency and supplemental appropriations submitted to the President by the legislative branch and the judicial branch." |
| 2. |
OMB Circular A-11, part 2, "Preparation and Submission of Budget Estimates," provides the following information for agencies and entities, including the legislative branch, "not subject to Executive Branch review by law or custom. That means that the requirements for submitting materials in support of your budget request do not apply to you. However, you do need to submit the information required for inclusion in the budget database and documents, which OMB incorporates without revision." (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/a11_current_year/s25.pdf). |
| 3. |
Calculations by CRS with data from Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government, FY2017, Table 5.4—Discretionary Budget Authority By Agency: 1976–2021; available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals. |
| 4. |
Calculations by CRS with data from Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government, FY2014, Table 5.2—Budget Authority by Agency: 1976–2021; available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals. |
| 5. |
Congressional Budget Office, "Fiscal Year 2016 House Current Status of Discretionary Appropriations as of December 31, 2015," December 31, 2015, https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/dataandtechnicalinformation/50218-FY16House-12-31-2015.pdf. |
| 6. |
For mandatory spending language, see P.L. 97-51, 95 Stat. 966, September 11, 1981; and, for example: "Table 33-1. Federal Programs By Agency and Account" in Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012 (Washington, GPO: 2011), pp. 2, 3. For the Ethics Reform Act, see P.L. 101-194, 103 Stat. 1767-1768, Nov. 30, 1989. For additional information on Member pay generally, see CRS Report 97-1011, Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables, by [author name scrubbed]. |
| 7. |
Rather, adjustments may be determined by employing authorities (in the case of House and Senate employees) or broader or agency-specific pay systems. For example, see the Orders of the Speaker of the House of Representatives (issued pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 4532 note); Orders of the President pro Tempore (issued pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 4571); and laws governing employment for individual agencies, positions, or pay systems. |
| 8. |
The House and Senate office building accounts are two of the 10 accounts that fund operations of the Architect. The other accounts fund general administration, Capitol building, Capitol grounds, Capitol power plant, Library buildings and grounds, Capitol Police buildings and grounds, Capitol Visitor Center, and Botanic Garden. |
| 9. |
For example, the FY1996 conference report states (U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, FY1996 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill, H.Rept. 104-212, report to accompany H.R. 1854 (Washington: GPO, 1995), p. 9.): Inasmuch as the amendment relates solely to the Senate and in accord with long practice under which each body concurs without intervention, the managers on the part of the House, at the request of the managers on the part of the Senate, have receded to the Senate amendment, as amended. Similarly, the FY2010 conference report states (U.S. Congress, conference committee, FY2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill, H.Rept. 111-265, report to accompany H.R. 2918 (Washington: GPO, 2009), p. 33.): Inasmuch as these items relate solely to the House, and in accord with long practice under which each body determines its own housekeeping requirements and the other concurs without intervention, the managers on the part of the Senate, at the request of the managers on the part of the House, have receded to the amendment of the House as amended. |