Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) FY2018 Appropriations: Overview

Contents

• Administration and Congressional Action
• Financial Regulatory Agencies and FSGG Appropriations
• Committee Structure and Scope
• CRS FSGG Appropriations Experts

Summary

The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and more than two dozen independent agencies. The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate. This structure has existed since the 2007 reorganization of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.

President Trump submitted his FY2018 budget request on May 23, 2017. The request included a total of $45.2 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including $250 million for the CFTC.

The House Committee on Appropriations reported a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2018 (H.R. 3280, H.Rept. 115-234) on July 17, 2017. Total FY2018 funding in the reported bill would be $42.5 billion, with another $248 million for the CFTC included in the Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 3268, H.Rept. 115-232). The combined total of $42.7 billion would be about $2.5 billion below the President's FY2018 request, with most of this difference in the funding for the General Services Administration (GSA).

The House Committee on Rules announced a September 5, 2017, meeting to consider a rule on H.R. 3354, which was reported from the Appropriations Committee as the Interior appropriations bill. Under the Rules Committee announcement, H.R. 3354 would be considered on the House floor including nearly all of the text of H.R. 3280 as Division D of H.R. 3354.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations has held FSGG subcommittee hearings, but has yet to release an FSGG bill for FY2018.

Although financial services are a major focus of the FSGG appropriations bills, these bills do not include funding for many financial regulatory agencies, which are funded outside of the appropriations process. The FSGG bills do, however, often contain additional legislative provisions relating to such agencies as is the case with H.R. 3280, which contains several provisions in Title IX and Title X that also appear in H.R. 10, a broad financial regulatory bill passed by the House on June 8, 2017.

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Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) FY2018 Appropriations: Overview

The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Treasury (Title I), the Executive Office of the President (EOP; Title II), the judiciary (Title III), the District of Columbia (Title IV), and more than two dozen independent agencies (Title V). The bill typically funds mandatory retirement accounts in Title VI, which also contains additional general provisions applying to the funding provided agencies through the FSGG bill. Title VII contains general provisions applying government-wide. The FSGG bills have often also contained provisions relating to U.S. policy toward Cuba.¹

The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate. This structure has existed in its current form since the 2007 reorganization of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. Although financial services are a major focus of the bills, FSGG appropriations bills do not include many financial regulatory agencies, which are instead funded outside of the appropriations process.

Administration and Congressional Action

President Trump submitted his FY2018 budget request on May 23, 2017. The request included a total of $45.2 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including $250 million for the CFTC.²

On July 17, 2017, the House Committee on Appropriations reported a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2018 (H.R. 3280, H.Rept. 115-234).³ Total FY2018 funding in the reported bill would be $42.5 billion, with another $248 million for the CFTC included in the Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 3268, H.Rept. 115-232).⁴ The combined total of $42.7 billion would be about $2.5 billion below the President's FY2018 request, with most of this difference in the funding for the General Services Administration (GSA).

The House Committee on Rules announced a September 5, 2017, meeting to consider a rule for H.R. 3354, which was reported from the House Appropriations Committee as the Interior appropriations bill. Under the Rules Committee announcement, H.R. 3354 would be considered on the House floor including nearly all of the text of H.R. 3280 as Division D of H.R. 3354.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations has held FSGG subcommittee hearings, but has yet to release an FSGG bill for FY2018.

Table 1 reflects the status of FSGG appropriations measures at key points in the appropriations process. Table 2 lists the broad amounts requested by the President and included in the various FSGG bills, largely by title, and Table 3 details the amounts for the independent agencies. Specific columns in Table 2 and Table 3 are FSGG agencies' enacted amounts for FY2017, the President's FY2018 request, and the FY2018 amounts as reported by the House Appropriations Committee.

Financial Regulatory Agencies and FSGG Appropriations

Although financial services are a focus of the FSGG bill, the bill does not actually include funding for the regulation of much of the financial services industry. Financial services as an industry is often subdivided into banking, insurance, and securities.⁵ Federal regulation of the banking industry is divided among the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (generally known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB). In addition, credit unions, which operate similarly to many banks, are regulated by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). None of these agencies receives its primary funding through the appropriations process, with only the FDIC inspector general and a small program operated by the NCUA currently funded in the FSGG bill.

Insurance generally is regulated at the state level, with some oversight at the holding company level by the Federal Reserve. There is a relatively small Federal Insurance Office (FIO) inside the Treasury, which is funded through the Departmental Offices account, but FIO has no regulatory authority.⁶

Federal securities regulation is divided between the SEC and the CFTC, both of which are funded through appropriations. The CFTC funding is a relatively straightforward appropriation from the general fund, whereas the SEC funding is provided by the FSGG bill, but then offset through fees collected by the SEC.

Although funding for many financial regulatory agencies may not be provided by the FSGG bill, legislative provisions affecting financial regulation in general and some of these agencies specifically have often been included in FSGG bills. H.R. 3280 includes many provisions, particularly in Title IX and Title X, that would amend the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act⁷ and other statutes relating to the regulation of financial institutions and the authority and funding of financial regulators. Many of these provisions were included in other legislation, notably H.R. 10,⁸ which was passed by the House on June 8, 2017. Of particular interest from the appropriations perspective, H.R. 3280 would bring several financial regulators under the FSGG bill instead of receiving funding from outside of the appropriations process as is currently the case.⁹ Previous FSGG bills that addressed the Dodd-Frank Act and other financial regulatory changes proved controversial.

Committee Structure and Scope

The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations reorganized their subcommittee structures in early 2007. Each chamber created a new Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. In the House, the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee is composed primarily of agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies, commonly referred to as "TTHUD."¹⁰ In addition, the House FSGG Subcommittee was assigned four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

In the Senate, the jurisdiction of the new FSGG Subcommittee is a combination of agencies from the jurisdiction of three previously existing subcommittees. Most of the agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee were assigned to the FSGG subcommittee.¹¹ In addition, the District of Columbia, which had its own subcommittee in the 109^th Congress, was placed under the purview of the FSGG Subcommittee, as were four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the FCC, FTC, SEC, and SBA. As a result of this reorganization, the House and Senate FSGG Subcommittees have nearly identical jurisdictions, except that the CFTC is under the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee in the Senate and the Agriculture Subcommittee in the House.

CRS FSGG Appropriations Experts

Table 4 lists various departments and agencies funded through FSGG appropriations and the names and contact information of the CRS expert(s) on these departments and agencies.

Author Contact Information

Footnotes

1.	These provisions typically appear in Title I due to the Department of Treasury's role in sanctions enforcement. See CRS Report R44822, Cuba: U.S. Policy in the 115th Congress, by [author name scrubbed].
2.	The President's budget does not total the requested amounts according to the congressional appropriations structure. This total amount is as reported in H.Rept. 115-234 and H.Rept. 115-232.
3.	U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, 2018, report to accompany H.R. 3280, 115th Cong., 1st sess., July 17, 2017, H.Rept. 115-234 (Washington: GPO, 2017).
4.	U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018, report to accompany H.R. 3268, 115th Cong., 1st sess., July 17, 2017, H.Rept. 115-232 (Washington: GPO, 2017).
5.	For a more complete discussion regarding the funding of financial regulators see, CRS Report R43391, Independence of Federal Financial Regulators: Structure, Funding, and Other Issues, by [author name scrubbed], [author name scrubbed], and [author name scrubbed].
6.	For more information, see CRS Report R44046, Insurance Regulation: Background, Overview, and Legislation in the 114th Congress, by [author name scrubbed].
7.	P.L. 111-203. See CRS Report R41350, The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Background and Summary, coordinated by [author name scrubbed].
8.	For more information on H.R. 10, see CRS Insight IN10695, The Financial CHOICE Act (H.R. 10) and the Dodd-Frank Act, by [author name scrubbed], and CRS Report R44839, The Financial CHOICE Act in the 115th Congress: Selected Policy Issues, by [author name scrubbed] et al.
9.	These regulators include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. For more information on financial regulator funding, see CRS Report R43391, Independence of Federal Financial Regulators: Structure, Funding, and Other Issues, by [author name scrubbed], [author name scrubbed], and [author name scrubbed].
10.	The agencies previously under the jurisdiction of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies (TTHUD) that did not become part of the FSGG Subcommittee were the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, the Federal Maritime Commission, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.
11.	The agencies that did not transfer from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies to FSGG were DOT, HUD, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, the Federal Maritime Commission, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.