The Congressional Budget Process Timeline

Contents

• Introduction
• The Congressional Budget Act of 1974
• Submission of the President's Budget to Congress
• Adoption of a Budget Resolution
• Reconciliation Legislation
• Development and Consideration of Appropriations Bills
• Regular Appropriations Bills
• Continuing Resolutions
• Final Enactment of Regular Appropriations

Summary

The Constitution grants Congress power over federal spending, revenues, and borrowing. While the Constitution establishes the legislative branch as having this authority, it does not specify how, when, and in what order Congress should exercise it. As a result, Congress has created a budget process over time to define how it develops and considers budgetary measures for each federal fiscal year beginning on October 1. The timing, sequence, and occurrence of the actions and decisions that make up the congressional budget process may differ for each fiscal year. Target dates and timetables established in law are intended to guide the timing and sequence of certain aspects of the process, however.

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (the Budget Act) created a timetable that provides a framework for the intended timing and sequence of the congressional budget process for each fiscal year. It established a series of target and enabling dates for the consideration and adoption or enactment of budgetary measures prior to the start of each fiscal year. The timetable outlined in the Budget Act is useful for understanding the intended timing and sequence of the congressional budget process. In practice, however, there is no timeline that can predict with certainty how the process will unfold each year.

The annual submission of the President's budget to Congress serves as a statement of Administration policy and priorities and is typically seen as the beginning of the congressional budget process for the upcoming fiscal year. The President is required by law to submit a budget request for the upcoming fiscal year by the first Monday in February, but the submission often occurs after this date.

The Budget Act provides for the adoption of a budget resolution that serves as an agreement between the House and Senate on a congressional budgetary plan for the upcoming fiscal year. In years when Congress has adopted a budget resolution, it has most often been in the spring or summer, though it has sometimes been later. In some recent years, for example, Congress adopted a budget resolution after the beginning of the initial fiscal year for which it applied. In years when Congress has not adopted a budget resolution, the House and/or Senate has often employed alternative legislative tools (known as "deeming resolutions") to establish enforceable budgetary levels at some point during the budget process.

The reconciliation process is an optional process that is triggered by the adoption of a budget resolution containing provisions known as reconciliation directives. This process allows Congress to develop and consider certain budgetary legislation using expedited procedures. Reconciliation generally follows a timeline set forth in the budget resolution, and therefore its timing and duration have varied historically. Congress has passed reconciliation legislation at various times during the calendar year, including both before and after the beginning of the initial fiscal year for which the budget resolution applied.

The appropriations process refers to the development and consideration of appropriations legislation for each fiscal year, including the 12 regular appropriations bills that provide annual funding for most federal agencies. This process typically begins shortly after the submission of the President's budget and, in recent decades, has continued into the new fiscal year.

It has been common in recent practice for Congress to enact one or more continuing appropriations measures (known as "continuing resolutions" or CRs) to provide temporary funding for agencies if some or all of the regular appropriations bills have not been enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1. Congress has typically enacted an initial CR in late September that provides budget authority for the first weeks or months of the new fiscal year and then enacted additional CRs to extend this funding as needed.

For most fiscal years, Congress has completed the appropriations process by enacting the 12 regular appropriations acts either separately or as part of consolidated appropriations measures (often referred to as "omnibus" or "minibus" appropriations acts). On occasion, Congress has completed the process by enacting a CR covering some or all of the regular appropriations acts through the end of the fiscal year (often referred to as a "full-year CR"). In recent decades, most regular appropriations bills have not been enacted prior to the start of the fiscal year. As a result, since FY1998, the process has been completed at some point after the start of the fiscal year for which appropriations legislation was being considered. Over this period, the process was completed between October and May but most often in December or March.

Introduction

Article I of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse, establishing the House and Senate as having control over federal spending, revenue, and borrowing decisions.¹ The Constitution, however, does not specify how, when, and in what order Congress should make federal budgetary decisions. As a result, Congress has created a budget process over time through a patchwork of statutes, rules, practices, and precedents that, together, are intended to define how Congress exercises its power of the purse.

The congressional budget process generally refers to congressional development and consideration of budgetary measures for a given federal fiscal year running from October 1 through September 30 of the following calendar year. This process typically involves actions and decisions on a range of measures directly or indirectly affecting federal spending, revenues, and/or borrowing. The timing, sequence, and occurrence of the actions and decisions that make up the congressional budget process may differ to various degrees for each fiscal year. Target dates and timetables established in law are intended to guide the timing and sequence of certain aspects of the process, however.

This report provides an overview of the timing and sequence of the regular, annual actions and decisions that are a part of the congressional budget process. First, it outlines the timetable for the process set forth in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (the Budget Act). Next, it provides information on the timing and sequence of major steps in the process in recent practice. The major actions in the congressional budget process that this report covers include the submission of the President's budget to Congress, adoption of the budget resolution, potential development and consideration of reconciliation legislation, and the development and consideration of appropriations legislation. This report does not cover budgetary measures that are not developed and considered on any regular or annual timeline but may be part of congressional budgetary decisionmaking in a given year, such as legislation related to the debt limit, certain legislation related to mandatory (or direct) spending or revenues, and legislation authorizing appropriations.²

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974

The Budget Act established a process intended to coordinate the budgetary decisions Congress makes on an annual basis.³ The act created the budget resolution to serve as an agreement between the House and the Senate on a high-level budgetary plan for the upcoming fiscal year, the budget reconciliation process to provide for the expedited consideration of certain budgetary legislation, and several rules related to the development and consideration of appropriations legislation and other budgetary measures.⁴

Section 300 of the Budget Act created a timetable intended to organize the timing and sequence of the key steps in the process. This timetable provides a series of target and enabling dates for the consideration and adoption or enactment of budgetary measures prior to the start of each fiscal year on October 1 (as seen in Table 1).

Several aspects of the budget process created by the Budget Act can be enforced through points of order during the consideration of budgetary measures in the House and Senate.⁵ This includes certain points of order related to the timing and sequence of the consideration of such measures (as seen in Table 2).

The timetable established in Section 300 of the Budget Act provides a framework for the intended timing and sequence of the congressional budget process. Most of the actions and decisions outlined in this timetable typically occur for each fiscal year, and the target dates established for each may be generally indicative of the timing of certain actions in a given year. Further, certain steps in the process are designed to be related to or required for later steps in the process. This generally provides some predictability from year to year in terms of the sequence of certain steps in the process.

In practice, however, no timeline can predict with absolute certainty how the congressional budget process will unfold for each fiscal year. The timing, sequence, and occurrence of the actions that make up the process may be influenced by various logistical, political, economic, and other factors each year. As a consequence, for any given fiscal year, some steps in the process may occur after the target date for that action established in the Budget Act, while others may not occur at all.

Most of the target and enabling dates established in Section 300 of the Budget Act are not enforceable, meaning there are no legal or procedural consequences for missing such targets. Furthermore, Budget Act points of order intended to enforce the timing and sequence of certain steps in the congressional budget process are not self-enforcing. This means that any enforcement of such rules requires that a Member raise a point of order during floor consideration of applicable measures in their chamber. Both the House and the Senate also have procedures for waiving Budget Act points of order. In the Senate, most Budget Act points of order can be waived with the affirmative vote of three-fifths of Senators duly chosen and sworn. In the House, such points of order can be waived through the adoption of a special rule reported by the House Rules Committee, by considering a measure under suspension of the rules, or by unanimous consent.

Submission of the President's Budget to Congress

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 established a requirement for the President to submit a consolidated budget request for the upcoming fiscal year near the beginning of each calendar year.⁶ The President's budget submission serves as a statement of Administration policy priorities as well as a detailed plan for the allocation of budgetary resources and execution of government activities. Under current law, the President must submit a budget to Congress no later than the first Monday in February, although the submission is often delayed until after this date for various reasons. The submission of the President's budget generally signifies the beginning of congressional consideration of budgetary questions concerning the upcoming fiscal year.

CRS Report R47019, The Executive Budget Process: An Overview includes discussion on the historical timing and practice of the President's budget submission to Congress, stating in part

Under current law, the President must develop and submit a consolidated budget to Congress no later than the first Monday in February prior to the start of the upcoming fiscal year. In practice, the President sometimes does not meet this submission deadline, particularly during transition years. In advance of a late budget submission during a transition year, the President may submit a preliminary "skinny budget." The form and content of skinny budgets vary from Administration to Administration, but they typically present high-level proposed budget data, often aggregated to the agency or department level.

There is no statutorily established consequence for missing the submission deadline; however, a late submission could delay other aspects of the budget process.⁷

Adoption of a Budget Resolution

The Budget Act provides for the adoption of a concurrent resolution on the budget (the budget resolution) for each fiscal year.⁸ The budget resolution allows Congress to establish a framework within which the House and Senate will consider budgetary legislation, set enforceable spending and revenue levels, outline high-level spending priorities, and, optionally, include instructions that can trigger subsequent reconciliation legislation. In the context of the congressional budget process timeline, the budget resolution can be an important enabling mechanism for later steps in the process.⁹ Under the Budget Act, Congress is generally prohibited from considering budgetary measures before the adoption of a budget resolution, although the Budget Act does provide an exception for the House to begin considering appropriations bills in the absence of one after May 15.¹⁰

The Budget Act sets a target date of April 15 for adoption of the budget resolution. Historically, however, Congress has most often adopted budget resolutions after this date. Since FY1986, the first fiscal year for which this target date applied,¹¹ Congress has adopted a budget resolution on or before April 15 on four occasions—for FY1994, FY2000, FY2001, and FY2004.¹² Most budget resolutions have been adopted for the upcoming fiscal year in the months of April through June. In recent practice, though, Congress has adopted budget resolutions with reconciliation instructions after the beginning of the initial fiscal year for which it applied. Such budget resolutions were adopted for FY2017, FY2018, FY2021, and FY2025.¹³

There have been several fiscal years in recent decades for which Congress has adopted no budget resolution. This has been the case for 13 of the 50 fiscal years since the first budget resolution was adopted for FY1976. All 13 of these instances occurred between FY1999 and FY2025, including for nine fiscal years since FY2011. For fiscal years when Congress has not adopted a budget resolution, the House and/or Senate have often employed alternative legislative measures (collectively referred to as "deeming resolutions") to establish certain enforceable budgetary levels, especially those related to the annual appropriations process.¹⁴ The timing of adoption as well as the form of deeming resolutions has varied in the House and Senate historically.

Reconciliation Legislation

Reconciliation is an optional process through which Congress can develop and consider legislation changing mandatory (or direct) spending, revenues, and/or the debt limit using expedited procedures. To use the reconciliation process, Congress is required to first adopt a budget resolution that includes what are known as reconciliation directives (or instructions).¹⁵ These directives instruct specified House and Senate Committees to recommend, by a certain date, changes in laws under its jurisdiction to meet certain budgetary targets outlined in the budget resolution. The resulting reconciliation legislation is eligible to be considered in the House and Senate under special expedited procedures established in the Budget Act. Most notably, these procedures allow the Senate to pass reconciliation legislation without the need to invoke cloture, which would require the support of three-fifths of all Senators.

The timetable established in the Budget Act contemplates that consideration of reconciliation legislation be completed by June 15. In practice, the timing of reconciliation largely depends on the budgetary plan adopted in the budget resolution for that fiscal year. The timing of a budget resolution, the deadline for instructed committees to submit legislative proposals, and various other political and economic factors may influence when reconciliation legislation is enacted. These factors may also influence the length of the reconciliation process in terms of the time between the adoption of a budget resolution and the enactment (or veto or failure) of subsequent reconciliation legislation. Figure 1 visualizes the timing of the reconciliation process for all reconciliation measures passed by Congress since FY1981—beginning with the adoption of a budget resolution and ending with the enactment or veto of reconciliation legislation.

Figure 1. Timing of Budget Resolution Adoption and Enactment (or Veto) of Reconciliation Legislation FY1981-FY2025

Sources: Information compiled from CRS Report R40480, Budget Reconciliation Measures Enacted into Law Since 1980, by Megan S. Lynch; the CRS Appropriations Status Table; and Congress.gov. Notes: "Number of days in between the resolution and reconciliation" refers to the number of calendar days between the adoption of a budget resolution by Congress and the enactment or veto of reconciliation legislation pursuant to that budget resolution. "Fiscal Year Start" and "Fiscal Year End" refer to the beginning (October 1) and end (September 30), respectively, of the first fiscal year for which the relevant budget resolution applies. The President has vetoed reconciliation legislation on four occasions (reconciliation legislation for FY1996, FY2000, FY2001, and FY2016). This graphic does not include the one reconciliation bill that failed in the Senate (H.R. 1628 [115th Congress], the American Health Care Act of 2017).

Since the first reconciliation legislation was enacted for FY1981, Congress has passed 28 reconciliation measures, and the President has signed 24 into law. Over this period, there has been significant variation in the timing of when Congress has considered such legislation.¹⁶ Congress passed 12 of the 27 reconciliation measures prior to the start of the initial fiscal year for which the budget resolution applied. Of these, one passed in May, one in June, six in August, and four in September.¹⁷ Congress passed the remaining 16 reconciliation measures after the initial fiscal year for which the budget resolution applied began. One such measure passed in October, one in November, five in December, one in January, one in February, two in March, two in April, one in May, one in July, and one in August. On average, from the adoption of the budget resolution to the enactment (or veto) of the 28 reconciliation measures passed by Congress, the reconciliation process took about five months (roughly 152 days) to complete. This ranges from a low of under a month to a high of around 12.5 months.¹⁸

Development and Consideration of Appropriations Bills

The appropriations process consists of the development and consideration of appropriations legislation for each fiscal year. Through this process, Congress makes decisions on discretionary spending, which makes up roughly one-quarter to one-third of federal spending each fiscal year and generally consists of funding for the operations of most federal agencies and most of the programs, projects, and activities each carries out. Appropriations legislation also provides funding for certain mandatory spending programs—some of which are referred to as "appropriated entitlements"—that are controlled through authorizing laws but whose funding is provided in appropriations acts.

The appropriations process consists of the development and consideration of 12 regular appropriations measures for each fiscal year. Congress also typically develops and considers supplemental appropriations measures that provide funding in addition to the amounts provided in the regular bills, as well as continuing appropriations measures (known more commonly as "continuing resolutions," or CRs) that provide temporary funding in the event some or all of the regular bills are not enacted by the start of the fiscal year.¹⁹

October 1 represents a hard deadline for Congress to enact appropriations for the new fiscal year, as much of the funding provided in appropriations acts expires at the end of the fiscal year. Current law generally prohibits the obligation of funds in the absence of appropriations.²⁰ When a lapse in funding occurs (known as a funding gap or funding lapse), federal agencies are generally required to commence a shutdown of affected projects and activities.²¹

Like other aspects of the congressional budget process, the timing of the actions and decisions that make up the appropriations process varies for each fiscal year.

Regular Appropriations Bills

Most of the actions and decisions that make up the appropriations process involve the development and consideration of the 12 regular appropriations bills for each fiscal year. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees—which have sole jurisdiction over the development of appropriations legislation—are each organized into 12 subcommittees that are responsible for developing their chambers' versions of each of the regular appropriations bills.²² The development of each regular appropriations bill is generally intended to follow a sequential process involving consideration at the subcommittee, full committee, and chamber levels, as well as action between the chambers to complete the process. While this sequence remains generally consistent from year to year, the timing and occurrence of each phase in the process may differ to various degrees for each regular bill in either chamber. For most fiscal years in recent practice, some or all of the regular bills in either chamber have not gone through all of the traditional stages of consideration before final enactment.

Preliminary Action

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees typically begin action on annual appropriations measures shortly after the submission of the President's budget for the upcoming fiscal year. When the President's budget is delayed, the Appropriations Committees have on occasion taken steps toward the development of the regular bills prior to its submission. Preliminary actions by the Appropriations Committees include holding hearings at which Administration officials testify on their budgetary requests for the upcoming fiscal year, as well soliciting requests from individual Members or Senators with regard to their appropriations priorities.²³ While the timing of these actions has varied, they have most often occurred in the late winter or spring.

Committee Consideration

The House has historically initiated consideration of regular appropriations measures, and the Budget Act sets a target date of June 10 for the House Appropriations Committee to report its final regular appropriations bill for the upcoming fiscal year.²⁴ Although the committee has not met this target in recent decades, the House Appropriations Committee and its subcommittees have considered most of the 12 regular appropriations bills for each fiscal year between April and July. From FY2008 through FY2025, the House Appropriations subcommittees considered roughly 99% of total possible regular appropriations bills (213 out of 216), and the full committee reported roughly 88% (190 out of 216).²⁵ Over this period, the House Appropriations subcommittees and full committee considered all such bills between April and the end of July.²⁶

The Senate's record of considering regular appropriations bills at the subcommittee and full committee levels has been more varied in recent decades. From FY2008 through FY2025, the Senate Appropriations subcommittees considered roughly 55% of total possible regular appropriations bills (119 out of 216), and the full committee reported roughly 75% (163 out of 216). In recent practice, the Senate Appropriations Committee has frequently chosen to forgo subcommittee consideration and move directly to full committee consideration. From FY2021 through FY2025, one regular appropriations bill was marked up at the subcommittee level in the Senate.²⁷ When the Senate Appropriations subcommittees and/or full committee have considered regular appropriations bills in recent decades, they have done so in April at the earliest and December at the latest but most often between June and September.²⁸

Initial Floor Consideration

Initial floor consideration of regular appropriations bills generally refers to the House or Senate considering its chamber's version of one or more regular appropriations bills prior to resolving differences between the chambers and enacting a final version. The Budget Act sets a target date of June 30 for the House to complete action on regular appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year. It sets no such target date for the Senate. In practice, initial floor consideration of regular appropriations bills in the House and Senate in recent decades has begun in the spring or summer and, on several occasions, continued into the new fiscal year.

The House and Senate may consider all, some, or none of the regular appropriations bills for a given fiscal year on initial consideration, and the frequency of such consideration has varied in recent decades. The House has passed at least one regular appropriations bill on initial consideration for each fiscal year between FY1999 and FY2025. Over the same period, the Senate considered at least one regular appropriations bill on initial consideration for 17 fiscal years and considered none for 10.²⁹ In recent practice, the Senate has often acted on House-passed appropriations legislation at a later stage in the process.

Continuing Resolutions

To avert funding gaps and government shutdowns when one or more regular appropriations bills have not been enacted by October 1, Congress typically provides interim funding to agencies by enacting CRs.³⁰ One or more CRs has been enacted for all fiscal years but three since FY1977—when the fiscal year was set to begin on October 1—including for each fiscal year since FY1998.³¹

CRs vary in both the timing of their enactment and their duration. Congress has typically enacted an initial CR in September in the final days or weeks of a fiscal year that provides funding for the first weeks or months of the new fiscal year beginning on October 1. In recent practice, the initial CR enacted for a given fiscal year has typically lasted until November or December.³² Congress may subsequently enact additional CRs upon the initial CR's expiration to continue temporary funding in the event some or all of the regular bills remain unenacted. The number and aggregate duration of CRs have varied in recent decades (as shown in Figure 2).

Figure 2. Aggregate Duration of Short-Term Continuing Resolutions and Funding Gaps FY2000-FY2025

Source: Information compiled from CRS Report R46595, Continuing Resolutions: Overview of Components and Practices, coordinated by James V. Saturno; CRS Report RS20348, Federal Funding Gaps: A Brief Overview, by James V. Saturno; and the CRS Appropriations Status Table. Notes: Each segment of a fiscal year's bar represents the duration that one short-term CR or funding gap was in effect. Funding gaps—which occurred over this period in FY2014, FY2018, and FY2019—are represented with a red-striped pattern, as indicated in the graph's key. The left-most segment for each fiscal year, except where a funding gap is indicated, represents the first CR enacted by Congress and taking effect on October 1. The number on the right-hand side of each bar represents the total number of days between October 1 and the enactment of the final full-year appropriations measure for that fiscal year (including October 1). For FY2007, FY2011, and FY2013, and FY2025 some or all of the regular appropriations bills were funded through a full-year CR. These measures are considered full-year appropriations measures for the purpose of this graph and therefore are not included. This graph also does not convey the number of regular appropriations bills covered by each CR. CRs can provide funding for all or only some of the regular appropriations bills. Enactment of a CR does not mean that none of the regular appropriations bills was enacted prior, nor does it preclude passage of regular appropriations measures while the CR is in effect.

Final Enactment of Regular Appropriations

The enactment of full-year appropriations for accounts funded through all 12 of the regular appropriations bills generally marks the end of the regular appropriations process for each fiscal year.³³ For most fiscal years, Congress has completed the appropriations process by enacting the 12 regular appropriations acts either separately or as part of consolidated appropriations measures (often referred to as "omnibus" or "minibus" appropriations acts).³⁴ On occasion, however, Congress has completed the process by enacting a CR covering some or all of the regular appropriations acts through the end of the fiscal year (often referred to as a "full-year CR").³⁵

In recent decades, most regular appropriations bills have not been enacted prior to the start of the fiscal year on October 1. From FY1997—the last fiscal year for which all regular appropriations were enacted on or before October 1—through FY2025, 25 out of a total of 330 regular appropriations acts were enacted on or before October 1. As a result, since the appropriations process for FY1998, the process has been completed at some point after the start of the fiscal year for which appropriations legislation is being considered. Over this period, the timing of final enactment of full-year appropriations for a given fiscal year has varied, although it has most often been in December (for 10 fiscal years) or March (for seven fiscal years).³⁶

Footnotes