Reporting on Agency Budget Execution: Processes and Case Study Illustration

Reporting on Agency Budget Execution: Processes and Case Study Illustration

Reporting on Agency Budget Execution:
December 14, 2022
Processes and Case Study Illustration
Dominick A. Fiorentino
Budget execution refers to agency action to allocate, re-allocate, obligate, and expend budget
Analyst in Government
authority after it is provided in appropriations acts. Numerous provisions in law require agencies
Organization and
to report on budget execution. The budget execution process may be viewed as encompassing
Management
four activities:

Enactment of appropriations and apportionment of funds by OMB: The

Antideficiency Act requires that an agency’s appropriated funds be apportioned (i.e.,
subdivided and made available in increments) to help prevent agencies from prematurely exhausting them. In 2022,
Congress passed legislation requiring the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make apportionment
documents and decisions publicly available (P.L. 117-103). After OMB apportions appropriated funds, agencies may
use budget authority to incur obligations. The Department of the Treasury documents this budget authority, and the
legislation that established the budget authority, on an appropriations warrant.
Reallocation of budget authority by agencies: After the enactment of appropriations, agencies may be granted
discretion to reallocate funds within an appropriations account via reprogramming or from one account to another via
a transfer. Transfers, as well as reprogrammings that meet specified criteria, require congressional notification.
Certain transfers are also reported in the Treasury’s Central Accounting Reporting System (CARS).
Obligation of funds: Agencies enter into obligations when they incur legal liabilities for the payment of goods and
services. Agency obligations are reported via three mechanisms: (1) The Budget Appendix of the President’s budget
submission includes previous-year (i.e., actual) appropriations and obligations, current-year appropriations and
estimated obligations, and subsequent-year proposed appropriations. (2) The OMB SF 133 Report on Budget
Execution and Budgetary Resources allows for the monitoring of funds that OMB has apportioned. It provides a
consistent presentation of budgetary information, including obligations, across programs within each agency. (3) The
Spending Explorer portal on the USAspending.gov website presents account-level reporting on appropriated amounts
and obligations.
Outlay of funds: Outlays occur when Treasury disburses funds to liquidate obligations incurred by agencies.
Treasury issues monthly reports on outlays called the Monthly Treasury Statement on Receipts and Outlays of the
United States Government. Treasury also publishes an annual report detailing government receipts and outlays called
the Combined Statement of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances of the United States Government.
At the end of the fiscal year, most executive branch agencies are required to prepare audited financial statements. Treasury
and OMB compile information contained in agency-level financial statements into a government-wide financial report known
as the Financial Report of the United States Government.
This report uses a Department of Labor appropriations account—the Bureau of Labor Statistics Salaries and Expenses
account and its FY2020 appropriation—to provide a complete illustrative example of agency budget execution. The reporting
mechanisms included in this report apply to most executive agencies.
Given the continued interest in transparency around federal spending, Congress may wish to consider policy options that (1)
expand the types of budgetary information that is publicly reported, (2) improve the timeliness of budgetary information, and
(3) ensure that reported data are complete and accurate. Improving the amount and quality of budget execution data reported
by agencies may inform congressional decisionmaking when considering agency budgets and conducting oversight.

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Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Budget Execution Activities and Reporting Mechanisms ............................................................... 1
Budget Execution as a Phase of the Federal Budget Process .......................................................... 4
Execution of Enacted Budgetary Legislation ............................................................................ 4
Tracking an Illustrative Appropriations Account Through Budget Execution ................................ 5
Enactment of Appropriations and Apportionment of Funds by OMB ...................................... 6
OMB Public Reporting of Apportionments ........................................................................ 8
Appropriations Warrants .................................................................................................... 11
Agency Systems of Funds Control ................................................................................... 13
Initial Allocation of Funds Within an Account and Subsequent Framework for
Reallocation ................................................................................................................... 13
Reallocation of Budget Authority by Agencies ....................................................................... 14
Reporting on Transfers ...................................................................................................... 15
Reporting on Reprogramming .......................................................................................... 16
Obligation of Funds ................................................................................................................. 16
Budget Appendix Volumes for Subsequent Fiscal Years ................................................... 16
SF 133 Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources ....................................... 18
USASpending.gov Website ............................................................................................... 22
Outlay of Funds ....................................................................................................................... 23
Monthly Treasury Statement on Receipts and Outlays of the United States
Government and Treasury Combined Statement ............................................................ 24
Auditing and Financial Reporting ........................................................................................... 25
Relationship Between Financial Reporting and Reporting on Budget Execution ............ 26
Potential Issues for Congress......................................................................................................... 27
Completeness, Timeliness, and Accuracy of USAspending.gov Data .................................... 27
Expanded Use of Treasury Warrants in Budget Execution Reporting .................................... 28
Increased Reporting of Transfer Authorities ........................................................................... 28
Transparency of OMB Apportionments .................................................................................. 29

Figures
Figure 1. Budget Process Phases, Activities, and Reporting Mechanisms ...................................... 3
Figure 2. Concurrent Budget Planning and Execution for Multiple Fiscal Years ........................... 4
Figure 3. Example of Appropriated Funds Lifecycle ...................................................................... 5
Figure 4. FY2022 Apportionment Document ................................................................................. 11
Figure 5. Appropriations Warrant .................................................................................................. 13
Figure 6. FY2022 Appendix Program and Financing Schedule .................................................... 17
Figure 7. DOL SF 133 Report: End of Fourth Quarter FY2020 (September 2020) ...................... 20
Figure 8. DOL SF 133 Report: September 2020 ........................................................................... 21
Figure 9. Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in Executive Branch Agencies, 4th
Quarter 2020 ............................................................................................................................... 22
Figure 10. USASpending.gov Obligations by Program Activity .................................................. 23
Figure 11. September 2020 Monthly Treasury Statement: DOL ................................................... 25
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Figure 12. FY2020 Combined Statement: DOL ............................................................................ 25

Figure A-1. FY2020 Budget Appendix Proposed Appropriations Language ................................. 32
Figure A-2. FY2020 Budget Appendix Program and Financing Schedule .................................... 33
Figure A-3. FY2020 BLS CBJ ...................................................................................................... 36
Figure A-4. FY2020 BLS CBJ ...................................................................................................... 37
Figure A-5. FY2020 Unnumbered Appropriations: BLS Salaries and Expenses Account ............ 38
Figure A-6. DOL Transfer Authority ............................................................................................. 39
Figure A-7. Labor-HHS-Education Transfer Authority ................................................................. 39
Figure A-8. Labor-HHS-Education Reprogramming Instructions ................................................ 40
Figure A-9. House Committee Report 116-62 ............................................................................... 42
Figure A-10. Explanatory Statement ............................................................................................. 43
Figure A-11. Operating Plan Reporting Requirement ................................................................... 43

Appendixes
Appendix. Federal Budget Process Phases Preceding Budget Execution: Budget
Formulation and Appropriations and Budgetary Legislation ..................................................... 30

Contacts
Author Information ........................................................................................................................ 44

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Introduction
Budget execution refers to the actions taken by agencies to allocate, re-allocate, obligate, and
expend budget authority after it is provided in appropriations acts and other statutes.
Congress has passed into law numerous provisions that require periodic reporting of available and
obligated funds. Some of the reporting is publicly accessible in documents and online. Agencies
also have additional internal budgetary reporting responsibilities that are not immediately
accessible to Congress and the public. Finally, for certain kinds of transactions, agencies may
report information to congressional committees of jurisdiction, notably including the House and
Senate Appropriations Committees. This budgetary reporting may help inform Congress,
agencies, the President, and nonfederal stakeholders about federal government operations.
Additionally, this reporting may help Congress, the President, and agency executives to make
better-informed decisions about the allocation and use of government resources. At the same
time, budgetary transparency typically entails use of complex business processes and
corresponding investments in information technology (IT), which can be costly.
This report describes major budget execution activities and related reporting mechanisms. A case
study of a single, annually appropriated, discretionary spending account provides an illustrative
example of the existing budgetary information flows and reporting mechanisms that exist across
all or most executive agencies. The report concludes with a number of potential issues for
congressional consideration.
Budget Execution Activities and Reporting
Mechanisms
The federal budget process may be viewed as encompassing four general phases:1
1. Budget formulation: agencies craft their annual budget requests, and the President
submits a consolidated budget proposal;
2. Appropriations and budgetary legislation: Congress considers and passes annual
appropriations bills and other budgetary legislation;
3. Budget execution: agencies receive budget authority, manage resources during a
fiscal year, and obligate and expend funds; and
4. Auditing and financial reporting: executive branch agencies prepare audited
financial statements at the end of the fiscal year.
Because Phases 1 and 2 help provide a framework for agency budget execution, descriptions of
these two phases, along with examples of associated reporting mechanisms, are located in this
report’s Appendix and referred to when relevant.
Phase 3—the execution of enacted budgets—occurs in multiple, ongoing activities within a given
fiscal year. These activities include:
 apportionment of funds by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
 allocation and reallocation of budget authority by agencies,

1 See Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Circular No. A-11, Preparation, Submission and Execution of the
Budget, §10.5, August 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-for-agencies/circulars/. See also CRS
Report R46240, Introduction to the Federal Budget Process, by James V. Saturno.
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 obligation of funds, and
 outlay of funds.
During each of the budget execution activities, agencies collaborate with OMB and the
Department of the Treasury to report certain budget information, some of which is publicly
available. Other information that agencies report may be visible only to certain government
actors. In either case, this information provides insight about how an agency spends its
appropriations as directed by Congress. This information may inform decisions about future
budgets. Additionally, budget execution reporting describes the rate at which agencies obligate
funds. Figure 1 summarizes the information flows and reporting mechanisms associated with
each activity within the federal budget process.
Agencies also maintain internal budget execution reporting for use in agency decisionmaking (see
“Agency Systems of Funds Control”). These reporting mechanisms differ across agencies and are
often not publicly available. For this reason, this report does not cover agency-specific budget
execution reporting.
Phase 4, the auditing and publication of agency financial statements, occurs after the conclusion
of budget execution. These audited financial statements ensure the completeness and accuracy of
agency, OMB, and Treasury budgetary reporting.

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Figure 1. Budget Process Phases, Activities, and Reporting Mechanisms

Source: CRS analysis of OMB guidance documents, Treasury guidance documents, President’s budget submissions, agency budget documents, appropriations acts, and
congressional reports.
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Budget Execution as a Phase of the Federal Budget
Process
The phases of the federal budget process comprise a complex set of activities. While some of
these activities must be completed by specific dates, many follow a more flexible schedule
established by formal and informal rules and procedures.2 Congress is typically involved in all of
these activities.
The development of the President’s budget begins approximately 18 months prior to the start of
the fiscal year that the budget will cover. To put this timeline in context, as Congress begins
action on appropriations bills and other budgetary legislation for the upcoming fiscal year, OMB
and agencies have already begun planning for the subsequent fiscal year (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Concurrent Budget Planning and Execution for Multiple Fiscal Years

Source: CRS analysis of OMB guidance documents, President’s budget submissions, and the U.S. Code.
Notes: In practice, the actual budgetary submission and milestone dates for FY2020, FY2021, and FY2022 may
have varied.
Execution of Enacted Budgetary Legislation
The President, OMB, and agencies execute appropriations in accordance with applicable annual
appropriations acts and other budgetary laws. After such legislation has been enacted, OMB
apportions available funds to executive agencies by time period, program, project, or activity.3
Throughout the fiscal year, agencies allocate, obligate, and expend funds. They possess limited
authority to make spending adjustments after appropriations and other spending legislation have
been enacted through mechanisms such as transfers and reprogramming.
The appropriated funds lifecycle consists of multiple steps:

2 For a more detailed overview of the executive budget process, see CRS Report R47019, The Executive Budget
Process: An Overview, by Dominick A. Fiorentino and Taylor N. Riccard.
3 For more detailed discussion of executive budget processes and their underlying statutory requirements, see CRS
Report R47019, The Executive Budget Process: An Overview, by Dominick A. Fiorentino and Taylor N. Riccard. The
apportionment of appropriations is required by statute (31 U.S.C. §§1511-1519). Selected government entities are
exempted from the apportionment requirements, including the Senate, the House of Representatives, congressional
committees, and the Architect of the Capitol (31 U.S.C. §1511(b)(3)).
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1. “Budget authority” is enacted into law by annual appropriations and other
budgetary legislation. Budget authority provides agencies with the legal basis to
incur obligations.
2. “Obligations” are incurred when agencies enter into legally binding commitments
such as employing personnel or awarding contracts for the provision of goods or
services.
3. “Outlays” are payments made to liquidate these obligations.4
For an example of how appropriated funds are executed through these three steps, see Figure 3.
Figure 3. Example of Appropriated Funds Lifecycle
Relationships Among Budget Authority, Apportionment, Obligations, and Outlays

Source: CRS analysis.
Notes: This graphic serves as an il ustrative example and does not represent a particular appropriations account
or appropriated amount. In a given fiscal year, outlays may pay for obligations incurred within the same fiscal year
or during prior fiscal years.
Tracking an Illustrative Appropriations Account
Through Budget Execution
The following sections describe the reporting associated with each budget execution and financial
audit activity, including its purpose, content, and frequency (see activities 3-7 of Figure 1). The

4 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), A Glossary of Terms Used in the Federal Budget Process, GAO-05-
734SP, September 2005, p. 73, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-05-734sp.
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preceding budget process phases, including budget formulation and appropriations and budgetary
legislation (see activities 1 and 2 in Figure 1), are covered in the Appendix of this report.
This report uses a relatively straightforward appropriations account—the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) Salaries and Expenses account and its FY2020 appropriation—to provide a
complete illustrative example. BLS is a component of the Department of Labor (DOL), which is
one of the larger cabinet-level agencies.5 The FY2020 BLS Salaries and Expenses account is
located in the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020 (“Labor-HHS-Education”) appropriations bill.6 For FY2020,
the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act was enacted as Division A of the Further
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act).7
The BLS Salaries and Expenses account was selected as an illustrative example due to the
relative simplicity of its structure, which includes the following characteristics:
 Budget authority appropriated in FY2020 was grouped into only two periods of
availability,
 There were no transfers to or from this account during FY2020, and
 The account contains only discretionary appropriations.8
The reporting mechanisms included in this report apply to most executive agencies. Each
agency’s particular circumstances and architecture of appropriations accounts may have
idiosyncrasies that require insight into the agency’s programmatic activities.
This report tracks BLS’s FY2020 Salaries and Expenses funding over three successive fiscal
years to demonstrate how the same appropriation of funds works its way through each step of the
budget lifecycle described in Figure 3. The purpose of using this illustrative example is to show
how the various budgetary reporting mechanisms appear in practice.
Enactment of Appropriations and Apportionment of Funds by
OMB
Annual appropriations and other budgetary legislation provide agencies with budget authority,
which allows agencies to enter into obligations (see activity 2 of Figure 1).9 The basic unit of
regular appropriations acts is the unnumbered paragraph, which during budget execution
corresponds to an “account.”10 The Budget Appendix volume of the President’s budget

5 Title 31, Section 901, of the U.S. Code, enacted as a part of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act),
established the position of CFO at 24 large-sized executive branch agencies—known since 1990 as the “CFO Act
agencies.” DOL is one of these 24 agencies. For more information about the CFO Act, see CRS In Focus IF11610,
Federal Financial and Budgetary Reporting: A Primer, by Dominick A. Fiorentino.
6 See CRS Report R40858, Locate an Agency or Program Within Appropriations Bills, by Justin Murray.
7 P.L. 116-94, 2019 (133 Stat. 2548).
8 Discretionary spending refers to spending authority that is provided in, and controlled by, annual appropriation acts.
Mandatory spending, also known as “direct spending,” refers to spending authority that is provided in laws other than
annual appropriation acts. Mandatory spending includes entitlement authority (e.g., Medicaid) and payment of interest
on the public debt. See GAO, Glossary, p. 66.
9 See CRS In Focus IF12105, Introduction to Budget Authority, by James V. Saturno.
10 Unlike most authorizing legislation, regular appropriations legislation is drafted as unnumbered paragraphs that
provide a lump-sum amount for each appropriations account.
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submission also includes detailed budget estimates and financial information for appropriations
accounts.11
After enactment of a particular appropriation into law, agencies may obligate and expend funds,
subject to several conditions addressed by appropriations statutes.12 The conditions on the
availability of appropriations include:
 the purpose(s) for which particular funds are appropriated, which may be
expressed in statute in more or less detail and, in some cases, with certain
restrictions;13
 the time period during which funds are available for obligation and expenditure,
sometimes referred to as the period of availability or duration of
appropriations;14 and
 the amount of appropriated funds that may be obligated and expended.15
The funds appropriated to the BLS Salaries and Expenses account for FY2020 were as follows:
 Amounts and purposes: Of the $587 million in total appropriations, $27 million
are “for costs associated with the physical move of [BLS’s] headquarters,” and
the remaining $560 million are “for necessary expenses for [BLS] including
advances or reimbursements to State, Federal, and local agencies and their
employees for services rendered.”
 Periods of availability: Of the $587 million total, $560 million is to remain
available until the end of FY2020 (also known as a one-year appropriation), and
$27 million is to remain available until the end of FY2024 (i.e., a five-year
appropriation, which observers may also refer to as a multiple-year
appropriation).16
When executive agencies receive budget authority, the funds are subject to apportionment (see
activity 3 of Figure 1). With certain exceptions, the Antideficiency Act requires that these
appropriated funds be apportioned (i.e., subdivided and made available in increments) to help
prevent agencies from prematurely exhausting their appropriated funds.17 OMB apportions funds
appropriated to executive agencies.18 Funds may be apportioned by:

11 OMB, Budget of the United States Government Appendix, FY1996-Present, https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/
budget.
12 Authorizing statutes may also prescribe how funds may be spent, especially with respect to the appropriation’s
purpose.
13 GAO, Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, 4th ed., “Chapter 3, Availability of Appropriations: Purpose,” 2017
Revision, GAO-17-797SP, 2017, https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/687162.pdf. Some appropriations paragraphs refer to
separate authorizing statutes as defining purposes for which appropriations are provided.
14 GAO, Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, 3rd ed., vol. I, GAO-04-261SP, January 2004, p. 5-3,
https://www.gao.gov/assets/210/202437.pdf#page=558. For a discussion about duration of funds availability, see CRS
Report R46417, Congress’s Power Over Appropriations: Constitutional and Statutory Provisions, by Sean M. Stiff.
15 GAO, Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, 3rd ed., vol. II, GAO-06-382SP, February 2006, p. 6-4,
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-06-382sp.pdf#page=18.
16 P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2548).
17 31 U.S.C. §1512(a). For definitions of apportionment categories, see OMB, Circular No. A-11, §120.2. Funding that
may be exempted from apportionment is listed at Title 31, Section 1516.
18 Under Title 31, Section 1513(b)(1), of the U.S. Code, the President is statutorily responsible for apportioning funds
for executive branch agencies. This responsibility has been delegated to OMB under Executive Order 6166, as
amended. For the legislative and judicial branches, apportionments are made by the officials who maintain
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 time period (what OMB refers to as a “category A” apportionment, e.g.,
apportioned by fiscal year quarter);
 program, project, or activity (what OMB refers to as a “category B”
apportionment, e.g., “Executive Direction and Staff Services”); or
 a combination of time and function (what OMB refers to as a “category AB”
apportionment).
Apportionment
Circular No. A-11 defines apportionment as “a plan, approved by OMB, to spend resources provided by one of the
annual appropriations acts, a supplemental appropriations act, a continuing resolution, or a permanent law
(mandatory appropriations).”19 OMB may also apportion nonfinancial resources, such as personnel and motor
vehicles. In addition to apportioning appropriated funds, OMB may also provide agencies with guidance regarding
the implementation of laws related to mandatory spending (i.e., spending provided in acts other than annual
appropriations acts), such as laws authorizing certain entitlement programs.20
OMB directs agencies to submit apportionment requests by August 21 or “within 10 calendar
days after the approval of the appropriation or substantive acts providing new budget authority,
whichever is later.”21 OMB may also apportion multiyear and no-year funds for future fiscal years
(which OMB refers to as a “category C” apportionment), but apportionments may not last longer
than one fiscal year. Multiyear funds must be apportioned at the beginning of each fiscal year.22
OMB may also include footnotes in an apportionment document, which are textual descriptions
that provide additional information or instruction to the agency pertaining to the apportionment.23
At the beginning of a fiscal year, OMB generally apportions funds automatically to agencies until
OMB officials approve account-specific apportionments. These “automatic apportionments” are
approved by the OMB Director, typically in the form of a Bulletin, and contain a formula that
agencies use to calculate apportioned amounts.24
OMB Public Reporting of Apportionments
Until calendar year 2022, OMB’s apportionment decisions and documents were not made
publicly available as a matter of course. In the FY2022 Financial Services and General
Government Appropriations Act, Congress included requirements for OMB and executive

administrative control of each appropriations account.
19 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §120.
20 For discussion of one past practice, see CRS Report R41375, OMB Controls on Agency Mandatory Spending
Programs: “Administrative PAYGO” and Related Issues for Congress, by Clinton T. Brass and Jim Monke.
21 See OMB, Circular No. A-11, §120.23. Title 31, Section 1513(b)(1), of the U.S. Code states that agencies shall
submit apportionment requests “in the form and the way and at the time specified by the President” and that “agencies
must submit apportionment requests at least 40 days before the start of the fiscal year or within 15 days of the
enactment of the appropriations act, whichever comes later.”
22 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §120.52. Multiyear funds are appropriations that remain available for obligation for more
than one year. No-year funds are appropriations that remain available until expended. When funds are apportioned,
still-unobligated balances from each quarter accumulate and remain available until the end of the fiscal year without a
need for reapportionment. See GAO, Glossary, p. 22.
23 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §120.34.
24 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §120.2. For the OMB Bulletin automatically apportioning funds at the beginning of
FY2020, see OMB, Bulletin from Russell Vought, Director of OMB, 19-04, “Apportionment of the Continuing
Resolution(s) for Fiscal Year 2020,” September 30, 2019, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/
Bulletin-19-04.pdf.
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agencies to publicly disclose, for the first time, certain information about the apportionment of
appropriated funds.25
The legislation includes the following reporting requirements:
 Within 10 days of enactment, OMB must provide the House and Senate
Appropriations and Budget Committees each apportionment document and any
associated footnotes within two business days of OMB’s apportionment
approvals.26
 Within 120 days of enactment, OMB must post apportionment documents on a
publicly accessible website not later than two business days after their approval,
including an explanation for any footnotes accompanying an apportionment.27
 Within 15 days of enactment, OMB must publish and continually update any
delegation of apportionment authority on a publicly accessible website and in the
Federal Register. Additionally, OMB must report any change of officials with
delegated apportionment authority and the rationale for the personnel change to
“appropriate congressional committees” within five days of OMB action.28
Additionally, executive agencies are required to notify the House and Senate Appropriations and
Budget Committees, and “any other appropriate congressional committees,” if an apportionment
(1) is not provided in the statutorily required time period; (2) conditions funding availability on
further action; or (3) may hinder the agency’s prudent obligation of appropriated funds or the
execution of a program, project, or activity.29
On July 13, 2022—120 days after the enactment of P.L. 117-103—OMB created a publicly
accessible website containing apportionment documents and associated footnotes.30 OMB
organizes apportionment documents in two ways: (1) a single document may contain the
apportionment for one Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbol (TAFS); or (2) a single document,
corresponding to an agency component, may contain apportionments for each TAFS within that
agency component.31
Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbol (TAFS)
TAFS is a numerical identifier that describes an appropriation account as well as its period of availability. For
example, if Congress appropriates funds for a given account that expire on two separate dates (i.e., two periods of

25 See Sections 204 and 748 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2022 (Division E
of P.L. 117-103). These statutory provisions were enacted in the wake of congressional concerns that OMB may use its
apportionment authority to implement the policy preferences of the President without seeking congressional approval.
More specifically, Congress was concerned that apportionment decisions (and accompanying footnotes) may attempt to
condition funding availability on agency actions that are unrelated to the Antideficiency Act’s express purposes that
emphasizes prevention of premature exhaustion of funds. See U.S. Congress, House Committee on the Budget,
“Chairman Yarmuth Statement on Signing of Omnibus, Inclusion of Power of the Purse Reforms,” press release,
March 15, 2022, https://budget.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairman-yarmuth-statement-signing-omnibus-
inclusion-power-purse-reforms. See also U.S. Congress, House Committee on the Budget, Hearing on Congress’
Power of the Purse and the Rule of Law, hearings, 116th Cong., 2nd sess., March 11, 2020, H.Hrg. 116-25, p. 78.
26 P.L. 117-103 (March 15, 2022), Division E, Title II, §204(a).
27 P.L. 117-103, Division E, Title II, §204(b)-(c).
28 P.L. 117-103, Division E, Title II, §204(d). Appropriate congressional committees is not defined in this provision.
29 P.L. 117-103, Division E, Title VII, §748.
30 OMB, “Approved Apportionments,” https://apportionment-public.max.gov/.
31 Apportionment documents are available in Microsoft Excel and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) formats.
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availability), then there wil be two TAFS associated with that account. As agencies are generally not permitted to
mix funds with different periods of availability, they report obligations at the TAFS level. TAFS are used to track
budget execution across several reporting mechanisms.
A TAFS consists of a three-digit agency identifier, the funding period of availability, and the
federal account symbol. For this reason, if a single appropriation account—as presented in the
Budget Appendix or unnumbered paragraph of appropriations acts—contains multiple periods of
availability, it will be associated with multiple TAFSs.
FY2022 BLS Salaries and Expenses Account Apportionment
The reporting requirements contained in P.L. 117-103 are not retroactive, so the OMB website
does not contain apportionment documents prior to FY2022. To show the information contained
in the publicly available apportionment documents, the FY2022 BLS Salaries and Expenses
account apportionment is included in this report as an illustrative example.32 The apportionment
document, located on the OMB MAX website, contains three worksheets: “Apportionment
Requests to OMB” (see Figure 4), “OMB Footnotes,” and “Approval Info.” The first worksheet
lists the total budgetary resources available to the BLS Salaries and Expenses FY2022 TAFS
(inclusive of appropriated funds and other adjustments) and apportionments by quarter
(highlighted in yellow). The budgetary resource lines on the apportionment match those used on
the “Program and Financing” schedule in the President’s Budget Appendix, as well as the SF 133
Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources (for more information on these reporting
mechanism, see section “Obligation of Funds” below).33
Because the available budget authority is apportioned by time period (fiscal quarters), they are
labelled as “Category A.” These apportionments are legally binding under the Antideficiency Act.
There are no footnotes documented in this apportionment, so the rightmost column of the first
worksheet, as well as the second worksheet, are blank. The third worksheet contains the
electronic signature of the OMB Deputy Associate Director for Education, Income Maintenance
and Labor, who was the approving official.

32 OMB, “Approved Apportionments: Fiscal Year 2022,” “Department of Labor,” https://apportionment-
public.max.gov/Fiscal%20Year%202022/Department%20of%20Labor/Excel/
FY2022_Agency%3DDOL_Bureau%3DBLS_TAFS%3D016-2022-2022-0200_Iteration%3D2_2022-04-26-
09.48.xlsx.
33 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §120.27.
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Figure 4. FY2022 Apportionment Document
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account (dollars in “OMB Action” column)
te
o
tn
o
Fo
Line
B
M
No
Bureau/ Account Title / Cat B Stub / Line Split
OMB Action
O
Department of Labor
Bureau: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Account: Salaries and Expenses (012-20-0200)
TAFS: 16-0200 /2022
1100 BA: Disc: Appropriation
591,482,000
1700 BA: Disc: Spending auth: Collected (UTF)
36,516,000
1700 BA: Disc: Spending auth: Collected (Reimbursable)
20,488,200
BA: Disc: Spending auth: Antic colls, reimbs, other
1740 (UTF)
31,484,000
BA: Disc: Spending auth: Antic colls, reimbs, other
1740 (Reimbursable)
22,719,800
1920 Total budgetary resources avail (disc. and mand.)
702,690,000
6001 Category A -- 1st quarter
263,382,600
6002 Category A -- 2nd quarter
107,444,421
6003 Category A -- 3rd quarter
193,393,979
6004 Category A -- 4th quarter
138,469,000
6190 Total budgetary resources available
702,690,000

Source: OMB, “Approved Apportionments: Fiscal Year 2022,” “Department of Labor.”
Notes: Rows and columns from the Excel file that did not contain data are not displayed in the figure, for
readability. Yel ow highlights added by CRS to indicate apportionments by time period.
Apportionments by time are cumulative. That is to say, if an agency does not obligate the entirety
of its apportionment by the end the quarter, it remains available for obligation in the next quarter
of the same fiscal year. For example, at the beginning of the first quarter of FY2022, after the
funds are apportioned, $263 million are available to BLS for obligation. At the beginning of the
second quarter, up to $371 million are available for obligation (i.e., $263 million from the first
quarter apportionment, subtracting amounts obligated in the first quarter, plus $107 million from
the second quarter apportionment).
Appropriations Warrants
After Congress and the President enact appropriations measures into law, and OMB apportions
appropriated funds, agencies may use budget authority to incur obligations and, usually in
cooperation with Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, expend funds from the General Fund of
the Treasury.34 At this point in the budget process, Treasury officials prepare and issue
appropriation warrants, which are official documents issued by the Secretary of the Treasury that

34 Funds may also be expended from trust funds and special funds.
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establish the amount of appropriations approved by Congress that can be obligated and disbursed
(see activity 2 of Figure 1).35
Appropriations Warrant
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service defines warrant as “the document that records, on the books of [Treasury] and of
the federal agency to which an appropriation is made, the authority of the federal agency to use the amount of
funds as specified in an appropriation act by Congress.”36 Warrants serve to tie the budget authority associated
with an account to the legislation that created the budget authority.
In practice, each warrant includes the account number, relevant appropriation amount and period
of availability, and legal authority for the appropriation (typically a Statutes at Large, public law,
or U.S. Code citation).37 Appropriations warrants are reported in the Treasury’s Central
Accounting Reporting System (CARS) and are posted to a page of the OMB MAX website that is
accessible only to registered federal users.38
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account Appropriations Warrant
The appropriations warrant for the BLS Salaries and Expenses account can be found on the OMB
MAX website.39 See Figure 5 for an illustration of the information contained on the website. The
warrant contains several details about the account, including:
 the account number, which is 16-0200-00;
 the amounts and periods of availability for the appropriation, $560 million of
which was available until the end of FY2020 (a one-year appropriation), and $27
million, which was made available until the end of FY2024 (multiple-year
appropriation);
 the statutory authority for the appropriation, which is provided by the Statutes-at-
Large reference; and
 the effective date of the warrant of January 28, 2020, approximately one month
after the enactment of the appropriations measure, which was signed into law on
December 20, 2019.

35 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §20.3. For additional information about the creation of appropriations warrants, see U.S
Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), Treasury Financial Manual, §2025.10,
https://tfm.fiscal.treasury.gov/v1/p2/c200.
36 BFS, “TFM Glossary,” https://tfm.fiscal.treasury.gov/tfm-glossary.html.
37 The BFS cites Title 31, Section 3513, of the U.S. Code as the statutory authority for the creation of warrants. See
BFS, Treasury Financial Manual, §2015. This statute states that (1) the Secretary of the Treasury must prepare reports
on the financial operations of the U.S. government and (2) each executive entity must provide Treasury with reports
and information about its financial condition and operations as the Secretary of the Treasury may require. For a list of
required data components, see BFS, Treasury Financial Manual, §2025.10.
38 OMB, “"Budget Execution Reports (Home): Appropriations Warrants,” https://community.max.gov/display/
MAXInfo/Appropriations+Warrants. This page of the OMB MAX website is not publicly available and requires a
MAX account. Self-registration of a MAX account is available to federal government employees, congressional staff,
and contractors with federal government email addresses.
39 OMB, “Budget Execution Reports (Home): Appropriations Warrants, Warrants Detail TAFS 2020,”
https://community.max.gov/display/MAXInfo/Appropriations+Warrants.
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Figure 5. Appropriations Warrant
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account (Dollars in “Amount” Column)

Source: OMB, “Budget Execution Reports (Home): Appropriations Warrants, Warrants by Budget Account, FY
2020.”
Agency Systems of Funds Control
After OMB apportionment, agencies allot apportioned funds to various offices, programs, or
activities that are funded by a given account. Agencies are required to implement a system of
administrative controls to restrict obligations from exceeding any apportioned amounts.40
To support a system of funds control, agencies are required to establish internal accounting
controls.41 Additionally, agencies must identify non-compliant accounting and administrative
systems and report a remediation plan to Congress and the President annually.42 In practice,
agencies include this reporting with annually audited financial statements.43 The administrative
systems of funds control, including supporting accounting systems and internal reporting
mechanisms, differ from agency to agency and are beyond the scope of this report.
Initial Allocation of Funds Within an Account and Subsequent Framework for
Reallocation44
Within the contours of statutory appropriations text, OMB apportionments, and an agency’s
system of funds control, an agency will sub-allocate portions of an account’s budget authority
among one or more component organizations and programs. Each account may generally include
one or more related “programs, projects, or activities” (PPA), which are typically specified in
congressional documents as tables of information.45 The ways in which agencies do this sub-

40 31 U.S.C. §1514(a)(1).
41 31 U.S.C. §3512(c)(1), a provision included in the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act of 1982 (P.L. 97-255).
42 31 U.S.C. §3512(d)(2).
43 See DOL, “Agency Financial Reports,” https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ocfo/resources.
44 Clint Brass, Specialist in Government Organization and Management, contributed to this section of the report.
45 The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations may specify PPAs in report language to provide more detailed
expectations or directions to agencies on the allocation of funding among various activities funded within their
accounts. The term report language refers to information provided in reports accompanying committee-reported
legislation as well as joint explanatory statements included in conference reports. Specifically, a report may include
tables that break down each lump-sum appropriation into allocations for distinct PPAs. Appropriators may use these
tables to establish expectations for agencies’ allocations of funds. The report language often reacts to what agencies
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allocation vary. In addition, the categories of sub-allocations may differ from year to year for the
same account. Nevertheless, the annual budget formulation process usually generates documents
that establish a framework for how agencies sub-allocate funds during a given fiscal year and
provide a basis for subsequent reallocation that facilitates congressional oversight. The
framework typically includes:
 an agency’s budget justification to the appropriations committees, and46
 “report language” from:
 reports from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees that
accompany an agency’s annual appropriations bill reported by each
committee, including tables that break down the funding for an agency’s
account into lower levels of aggregation; and
 any relevant explanatory statement or joint explanatory statement that
accompanies a conference report or final bill.47
Agency budget justifications and congressional report language generally reflect long-standing
relationships between agencies and the appropriations committees. They may also result in a
shared understanding between an agency and the committees of how funds will be sub-allocated
and reallocated among PPAs within an account during a fiscal year. In the case of FY2020
appropriations for BLS, the House Appropriations Committee issued a report for the Labor-HHS-
Education bill, and there was no official Senate Appropriations Committee report. In addition, an
explanatory statement for the legislation was published in the Congressional Record that has the
same effect as a joint explanatory statement. The explanatory statement contains a PPA table
indicating how Congress expected BLS to allocate its appropriated funds among the Salaries and
Expenses account’s PPA during FY2020 (see Figure A-10 of the Appendix). Congress also
required BLS to submit an operating plan detailing any variances from the PPA table in the
explanatory statement during budget execution.48
For more information the relationships among appropriations committee report language,
explanatory statements, and budget execution, see this report’s Appendix.
Reallocation of Budget Authority by Agencies
After enactment of appropriations, agencies may be granted some discretion to reallocate budget
authority within or across appropriations accounts (see activity 4 of Figure 1).49 Under certain
conditions, an agency might use discretion under law to reallocate funding:
 from one PPA to another within a appropriations account through reprogramming
processes, or

provided to the Appropriations Committees in their budget justification documents.
46 See CRS Report R47090, Executive Agency Justification of the President’s Budget: In Brief, by Dominick A.
Fiorentino.
47 See CRS Report R44124, Appropriations Report Language: Overview of Components and Development, by Kevin P.
McNellis.
48 P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2608-2609).
49 The reallocation of budget authority within an account is referred to as a reprogramming. The reprogramming of
funds is generally permitted unless it is restricted by statute. Statutory provisions may also prohibit reprogramming
funds without congressional notification. For more information about reprogrammings, see CRS Report R43098,
Transfer and Reprogramming of Appropriations: An Overview of Authorities, Limitations, and Procedures, by
Michelle D. Christensen.
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 from one account to another through the transfer process.
Within appropriations measures, Congress typically specifies notification requirements for
reprogrammings that meet certain conditions.
Additionally, Congress may provide agencies with transfer authorities, which are typically limited
to specific purposes, restricted to certain dollar or percentage thresholds, and subject to
congressional notification requirements.50 Transfer authorities may specify a particular account or
may apply more generally to an entire agency. Agency-wide transfer authorities are often located
in the “General Provisions” section of an appropriations act. For examples of transfer authorities
and limitations on reprogrammings contained within the FY2020 Labor-HHS-Appropriations Act,
see this report’s Appendix.
Reporting on Transfers
Nonexpenditure transfers are reported in Treasury’s CARS system.51 OMB and Treasury
collaborate to generate reports from CARS that are updated weekly and maintained on a page of
the OMB MAX website.52 These reports include the following information:
 Transfer amount,
 Effective date,
 Statutory authority for the transfer,
 Transferring TAFS, and
 Receiving TAFS.
These reports list transfers that occurred in practice and do not represent a list of all transfer
authorities statutorily available to agencies. The TAFSs associated with the BLS Salaries and
Expenses account did not appear on the report listing transfers executed during FY2020.
Additionally, agencies that exercise transfer authority are often required to notify Congress prior
to (or shortly after) carrying out certain transfers.53 In the case of BLS, the House and Senate
Appropriations Committees were required to be notified at least 15 days in advance of transfers

50 For more information about transfer and reprogramming requirements contained within appropriations acts, see CRS
Report R43098, Transfer and Reprogramming of Appropriations: An Overview of Authorities, Limitations, and
Procedures, by Michelle D. Christensen.
51 BFS, Treasury Financial Manual, §2030.20. Transfers come in two general types. According to GAO, an
expenditure transfer refers to a transaction between appropriation and fund accounts that represents payments,
repayments, or receipts for goods or services furnished or to be furnished (e.g., if an agency pays for a good or service
from another agency). A nonexpenditure transfer, by contrast, refers to a transaction between appropriation and fund
accounts that adjusts the amounts available in the accounts for making subsequent payments. This CRS report focuses
on nonexpenditure transfers. For further discussion of transfers, see GAO, Glossary, pp. 95-96. Many expenditure
transfers are conducted under the Economy Act (31 U.S.C. §1535), which established guidelines and procedures
allowing agencies to perform work and provide goods and services to one another. Transfers to and from federal funds
(e.g., revolving, trust, or other special funds) are also considered expenditure transfers, as are transfers between budget
accounts and off-budget deposit accounts.
52 OMB, “Budget Execution Reports (Home): Nonexpenditure Transfers,” https://community.max.gov/display/
MAXInfo/Nonexpenditure+Transfers. This page of the OMB MAX website is not publicly available and requires a
MAX account.
53 Congressional notification is often also required for reprogramming actions—the shifting of funds within an
account—that meet certain statutorily defined criteria.
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occurring during FY2020 (see Figure A-6 in the Appendix).54 The transfer notifications received
by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are not publicly available.55
Reporting on Reprogramming
Reprogrammings may also be subject to congressional notification requirements. In FY2020,
BLS reprogrammings that met certain criteria—including those that created new programs,
eliminated programs, and increased or decreased program funding beyond a specified threshold—
required prior congressional notification. Specifically, BLS was required to notify the House and
Senate Appropriations Committees at least 15 days in advance of these reprogrammings (see
Figure A-8 of Appendix).56 The reprogramming notifications received by the House and Senate
Appropriations Committees are not publicly available.
Obligation of Funds
After enactment of appropriations, an agency may obligate funds among an account’s PPA,
subject to the manner in which funds were apportioned (see activity 5 of Figure 1).57 Agencies
enter into obligations when they incur legal liabilities for the payment of goods and services.58
Examples of obligations include awarding contracts for the provision of goods or services and
employing personnel.
Budget Appendix Volumes for Subsequent Fiscal Years
Certain account-level information about (1) previous-year (i.e., actual) appropriations and
obligations, (2) current-year appropriations and estimated obligations, and (3) subsequent-year
(also known as budget-year) proposed appropriations and estimated obligations is included in the
President’s submission of the Budget Appendix.59 That is, each year’s version of the Budget
Appendix provides information about appropriations and obligations for three fiscal years on a
rolling basis. The program and financing schedule for each account in the Budget Appendix
presents information on obligations in three columns. Moving from right to left, the columns
contain:
1. Estimated obligations for the upcoming fiscal year that align with the President’s
requested appropriations;
2. Estimated obligations for the current fiscal year based on what has already been
appropriated; and
3. Actual obligations for the prior fiscal year after the fiscal year has elapsed.
For this reason, reviewing the lifecycle of a one-year, discretionary appropriations account
requires Budget Appendix volumes from three consecutive fiscal years.

54 P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2550-2551).
55 There is an exception for Department of Defense (DOD) transfers (which is referred to as a type of reprogramming
by DOD). DOD transfers implemented since FY1999 are available at http://comptroller.defense.gov/
BudgetExecution.html.
56 P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2608-2609).
57 For more information about the reallocation of funds by agencies, see CRS Report R47019, The Executive Budget
Process: An Overview, by Dominick A. Fiorentino and Taylor N. Riccard.
58 GAO, Glossary, p. 74.
59 OMB, Budget of the United States Government Appendix, FY1996-Present.
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FY2022 Appendix: BLS Salaries and Expenses Account
The Trump Administration submitted its proposed FY2021 budget to Congress on February 10,
2020, during the fifth month of FY2020. As FY2020 had not fully elapsed, the second column of
the program and financing schedule in the FY2021 Budget Appendix includes estimated
obligations for FY2020, which totaled $690 million.60 Actual obligation totals for FY2020 would
not be available until after September 30, 2020, the end of FY2020. For this reason, actual
obligation totals for FY2020 can be found in the Budget Appendix for the following fiscal year
(FY2022).
The Biden Administration submitted its FY2022 transition year budget to Congress on May 28,
2021, almost eight months after the end of FY2020.61 The first column of the program and
financing schedule in the FY2022 Appendix contains the actual obligations incurred in FY2020,
which totaled $660 million (see bottom of the “2020 actual” column in Figure 6).62 For FY2021,
the Budget Appendix estimated there would be $696 million in obligations. Finally, for the
proposed budget in FY2022, the schedule estimated there would be $743 million in obligations if
the President’s proposal for BLS were to be enacted.
Figure 6. FY2022 Appendix Program and Financing Schedule
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account

Source: OMB, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2022, Appendix, May 2021, p. 798.

60 OMB, Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2021: Appendix, February 2020, p. 792, https://www.govinfo.gov/
content/pkg/BUDGET-2021-APP/pdf/BUDGET-2021-APP.pdf#page=796.
61 For more information about budget submissions during presidential transitions, see CRS Insight IN11655, Budget
Submission After a Presidential Transition: Contextualizing the Biden Administration’s FY2022 Request, by Taylor N.
Riccard.
62 OMB, Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2022: Appendix, May 2021, p. 798, https://www.govinfo.gov/
content/pkg/BUDGET-2022-APP/pdf/BUDGET-2022-APP.pdf#page=802.
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SF 133 Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources
Another mode of reporting on budget execution may be found online. OMB indicates that it
established the SF 133 Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources to fulfill:
 requirements associated with the Antideficiency Act for the President to review
the pace of obligations or expenditures at least four times annually;63 and
 the requirement to report on unliquidated obligations, unobligated balances,
cancelled balances, and adjustments made to appropriation accounts during the
completed fiscal year.64
In addition to fulfilling certain statutory requirements, OMB states that SF 133s serve additional
purposes, which include:
 allowing for the monitoring of apportioned and non-apportioned funds,
 providing consistent budgetary information within and across agencies,
 providing a reference point on the pace of historical spending that can inform the
President’s budget submission, and
 tying agency budget execution to financial reporting.65
These SF 133 reports have historically provided quarterly snapshots of appropriations and
obligations at the account and TAFS level. SF 133s are posted on OMB’s MAX.gov website and
are populated using data submitted by agencies to the Treasury’s Government-wide Treasury
Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance System.66 The MAX.gov website contains quarterly SF
133s dating back to FY1998. In FY2013, OMB began providing monthly reports. Data that
populate SF 133 reports are created at the agency level and can be filtered by agency bureau,
OMB account number, and TAFS.67
SF 133 Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources
The SF 133 report allows for the monitoring of funds that have been apportioned by OMB. It also provides a
consistent presentation of budgetary information, including obligations, across programs within each agency and
across agencies. SF 133 reports are posted on OMB’s MAX.gov website.
The reports contain a large number of lines and corresponding numerical codes containing
budgetary data.68 The lines help to show how multiple sources of budget authority and other

63 31 U.S.C. §1512(d). SF 133 reports on the OMB MAX website are publicly accessible. See OMB, “MAX
Information and Reports (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Users): SF 133 Report on Budget Execution and
Budgetary Resources,” https://portal.max.gov/portal/document/SF133/Budget/FACTS%20II%20-
%20SF%20133%20Report%20on%20Budget%20Execution%20and%20Budgetary%20Resources.html.
64 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §130.1. Also see 31 U.S.C. §1551-1554.
65 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §130.1. The compilation of an agency’s SF 133s should generally agree with an agency’s
Statement of Budgetary Resources. See OMB, Circular No. A-11, §130.21(e). The linkage between budget execution
reporting and financial reporting is discussed in further detail later in this report (see “Relationship Between Financial
Reporting and Reporting on Budget Execution”).
66 Treasury, “Government-wide Treasury Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance System,” https://fiscal.treasury.gov/
gtas/.
67 SF 133s are not independently audited.
68 For definitions of SF 133 line numbers, see OMB, Circular No. A-11, Appendix F.
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adjustments may aggregate into an account’s total budgetary resources. The lines are grouped
under four headings:
1. Budgetary Resources: This section shows whether budgetary resources are
available for obligation.
2. Status of Budgetary Resources: This section shows whether budgetary resources
have been obligated or not.
3. Change in Obligated Balance: This section shows whether obligated balances
changed.
4. Budget Authority and Outlays, Net: This section shows whether obligated
amounts have been outlayed.69
In addition to the agency-level SF 133s, OMB also creates additional reports that summarize
selected data elements from the SF 133s and posts them on the same website. One such example
is the quarterly Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in Executive Branch Agencies
Reported on SF 133s. This report lists unobligated account balances by TAFS and identifies the
direct discretionary balances that may be subject to rescission.70
September 2020 DOL SF 133 Report: BLS Salaries and Expenses Account
SF 133 reports are organized by agency and, within each agency, by TAFS. As such, there are two
entries for the FY2020 BLS Salaries and Expenses account: (1) the multiyear budget authority
with a period of availability ending in September 2024 related to the headquarters relocation and
(2) the one-year budget authority with a period of availability ending in September 2020 covering
all other expenses associated with this account.71
For the multiyear appropriation, budgetary resources totaled $27 million (see label “A” in Figure
7, added on the right side by CRS, and the highlighted amount). During FY2020, none of the
funding was obligated, so $27 million remained unobligated and available for future fiscal years
(see label “B,” added by CRS, and the highlighted amount). Near the top of the table, on the left
side, the “20/24” symbol indicates that these funds are available for the multiyear period from
FY2020 until the end of FY2024.

69 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §130.1.
70 Rescissions are the permanent cancellation of budget authority. For more information about rescissions, see CRS
Report R47019, The Executive Budget Process: An Overview, by Dominick A. Fiorentino and Taylor N. Riccard. The
Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in Executive Branch Agencies Reported on SF 133s report is located
under the heading “Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in Executive Branch Agencies” on the publicly
accessible OMB MAX page. See OMB, “MAX Information and Reports (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Users):
SF 133 Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources,” https://portal.max.gov/portal/document/SF133/Budget/
FACTS%20II%20-
%20SF%20133%20Report%20on%20Budget%20Execution%20and%20Budgetary%20Resources.html.
71 OMB, FY 2020—SF 133 Reports on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources, “Department of Labor,”
https://portal.max.gov/portal/document/SF133/Budget/FY%202020%20-
%20SF%20133%20Reports%20on%20Budget%20Execution%20and%20Budgetary%20Resources.html.
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Figure 7. DOL SF 133 Report: End of Fourth Quarter FY2020 (September 2020)
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account: Multiple-Year Appropriation (Dollars)
Line No Line Description
Sep (4Q)
012-20-0200 Salaries and Expenses
16-0200 20/24 - Salaries and Expenses
BUDGETARY RESOURCES
1100
BA: Disc: Appropriation
27,000,000.00
1134
BA: Disc: Appropriations precluded from obligation
0.00
1160
BA: Disc: Appropriation (total)
27,000,000.00
1900
Budget authority total (disc. and mand.)
27,000,000.00
1910
Total budgetary resources (disc. and mand.)
27,000,000.00 A
STATUS OF BUDGETARY RESOURCES
2201
Unob Bal: Apportioned: Avail in the current period
27,000,000.00
2403
Unob Bal: Unapportioned: Other
0.00
2412
Unexpired Unobligated Balance: end of year
27,000,000.00
2490
Unob Bal: end of year (total)
27,000,000.00 B
2500
Total budgetary resources
27,000,000.00
2501
Memo: Bud resc, subj to appor unob bal, EOY
27,000,000.00

Source: OMB, FY 2020—SF 133 Reports on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources, “Department of Labor.”
Notes: Rows and columns not containing data are not displayed for readability. Yellow highlights and red labels
“A” and “B” added by CRS. “A” refers to the total budgetary resources, and “B” refers to the unobligated
balance at the end of FY2020.
In the next figure, below, the SF 133 report shows the one-year appropriation. Slightly over $100
million in offsetting collections for FY2020 (see label “A” in Figure 8) combined with $560
million in discretionary appropriations totaled approximately $660.5 million in aggregated budget
authority (see label “B”) that was available for obligation. During FY2020, approximately $660
million was obligated (see label “C”), leaving approximately $515,000 unobligated (see label
“D”). At the top left of the figure, the symbol “/20” indicates the appropriation is one-year
funding for FY2020.
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Figure 8. DOL SF 133 Report: September 2020
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account: One-Year Appropriation (Dollars)
Line No Line Description
Sep (4Q)
012-20-0200 Salaries and Expenses
16-0200 /20 - Salaries and Expenses
BUDGETARY RESOURCES
1100
BA: Disc: Appropriation
560,000,000.00
1160
BA: Disc: Appropriation (total)
560,000,000.00
1700
BA: Disc: Spending auth: Collected
100,556,875.00 A
1750
BA: Disc: Spending auth: Total
100,556,875.00
1900
Budget authority total (disc. and mand.)
660,556,875.00
1910
Total budgetary resources (disc. and mand.)
660,556,875.00 B
STATUS OF BUDGETARY RESOURCES
2001
Direct obs incurred: Category A (by quarter)
627,485,207.59
2004
Direct obligations incurred (total)
627,485,207.59
2101
Reimbursable obs incurred: Category A (by quarter)
32,556,570.36
2104
Reimbursable obligations incurred (total)
32,556,570.36
2170
New obligations, unexpired accounts
660,041,777.95 C
2190
New obligations and upward adjustments (total)
660,041,777.95
2201
Unob Bal: Apportioned: Avail in the current period
515,097.05
2202
Unob Bal: Apportioned: Avail in subsequent periods
0.00
2403
Unob Bal: Unapportioned: Other
0.00
2412
Unexpired Unobligated Balance: end of year
515,097.05
2490
Unob Bal: end of year (total)
515,097.05 D

Source: OMB, FY 2020—SF 133 Reports on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources, “Department of Labor.”
Notes: Rows and columns not containing data are not displayed for readability. Yellow highlights and red labels
“A,” “B,” “C,” and “D” added by CRS. “A” refers to the total offsetting col ections, “B” refers to the total
budgetary resources, “C” refers to the total obligations incurred during FY2020, and “D” refers to the
unobligated balance at the end of FY2020.
September 2020 Unobligated Balances in Unexpired Accounts for Executive
Branch Agencies: BLS Salaries and Expenses Account
On the same website, the September 2020 Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in
Executive Branch Agencies report lists unobligated balances, broken down by TAFS, at the end of
FY2020 (see Figure 9).72 The amounts listed as unobligated for the one-year BLS appropriation
($515,000) and the multiyear BLS appropriation ($27 million) match the September 2020 DOL
SF 133. Under the column labelled “Multi Avail,” $27 million is listed, as it remains available for

72 OMB, Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in Executive Branch Agencies, 4th Quarter 2020,
https://portal.max.gov/portal/document/SF133/Budget/FY%202020%20-
%20SF%20133%20Reports%20on%20Budget%20Execution%20and%20Budgetary%20Resources.html.
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obligation for multiple fiscal years until 2024. By contrast, $515,000 is listed under the column
labelled “Expiring,” as no new obligations may be made after the end of FY2020.
Figure 9. Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in
Executive Branch Agencies, 4th Quarter 2020
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account (in Thousands of Dollars)

Source: OMB, Analysis of Available, Unobligated Balances in Executive Branch Agencies, 4th Quarter 2020.
USASpending.gov Website
Congress has also passed statutory provisions resulting in reporting on budget execution at the
account level. The USASpending.gov website started with an exclusive focus on federal awards
(i.e., grants and contracts). Following the passage of the Digital Accountability and Transparency
Act of 2014 (DATA Act), the website evolved into a broader portal on several aspects of
budgetary and financial reporting.73 Specifically, Congress mandated account-level reporting on
appropriated amounts and obligations.74 This account-level view of budget execution is made
publicly available at the Spending Explorer portal on USASpending.gov.75 The DATA Act
requires Treasury and OMB to implement the disclosure of federal funds on the
USASpending.gov website, including establishing data standards that produce consistent,
comparable, and searchable spending data for any federal funds made available to or expended by
federal agencies.76 Agencies submit files containing certain data elements to Treasury’s DATA
Act Broker, which collects and validates agency-submitted data prior to their publication on the
USAspending.gov website.77 Annual agency congressional budget justification documents are
also required to be posted to USASpending.gov.78

73 For more information about the tracking of federal awards using the USAspending.gov website, see CRS Report
R44027, Tracking Federal Awards: USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, by Jennifer Teefy.
74 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA), as amended by the DATA Act; see 31
U.S.C. §6101 note.
75 The USASpending.gov “Spending Explorer” portal is available at https://www.usaspending.gov/#/federal_account.
76 Section 3 of FFATA, P.L. 109-282 (120 Stat. 1186), as amended by the DATA Act, P.L. 113-101 (123 Stat. 1148);
see 31 U.S.C. §6101 note.
77 GAO, Federal Spending Transparency: OIGs Identified a Variety of Issues with the Quality of Agencies’ Data
Submissions, GAO 22-105427, July 2022, p. 3, https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-105427.pdf#page=9.
78 P.L. 117-40, Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act of 2021, September 24, 2021 (135 Stat. 337),
amending FFATA (P.L. 109-282), located at 31 U.S.C. §6101 note.
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USASpending.gov: BLS Salaries and Expenses Account Webpage
FY2020 BLS Salaries and Expenses obligation data are located on the Spending Explorer page of
USASpending.gov.79 The webpage displays total obligations by “program activity,” “object
class,” and certain award-related information associated with an account (see Figure 10).80
USASpending.gov lists total obligations of $662.8 million for the BLS Salaries and Expenses
account as of September 30, 2020, which is approximately $2.8 million higher than the total
obligations reported on the September 2020 SF 133. This difference may be attributed to timing
differences, data quality issues, or accounting adjustments made after the end of the fiscal year.
Figure 10. USASpending.gov Obligations by Program Activity
FY2020 BLS Salaries and Expenses Account

Source: USASpending.gov, “Spending Explorer,” accessed on November 11, 2022.
Outlay of Funds
Outlays occur when Treasury disburses funds to liquidate obligations incurred by agencies (see
activity 6 of Figure 1). In a given fiscal year, outlays may pay for obligations incurred within the

79 USASpending.gov, “Spending Explorer,” https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/agency.
80 According to OMB, object classes are “categories in a classification system that presents obligations by the items or
services purchased by the Federal Government,” such as personnel compensation, acquisition of assets, and grants.
OMB, Circular No. A-11, §83. The term program activity refers to a level of aggregation immediately below the
account level. Title 31, Section 1115(h), of the U.S. Code defines the term to mean a specific activity or project as
listed in the program and financing schedules of the President’s annual budget submission.
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same fiscal year or during prior fiscal years.81 Outlays within a given year may contribute to an
annual budget deficit—when outlays surpass receipts—as well as the overall federal debt level.82
Monthly Treasury Statement on Receipts and Outlays of the United States
Government and Treasury Combined Statement
Treasury issues monthly reports on outlays called the Monthly Treasury Statement on Receipts
and Outlays of the United States Government. These monthly reports provide data on outlays at
the agency and sub-agency level (available in PDF and Excel format). Treasury also publishes an
annual report detailing government receipts and outlays in response to a statutory requirement to
inform the President, Congress, and the public on federal financial operations.83 Since 2001, this
report has been called the Combined Statement of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances of the United
States Government. The Combined Statement is issued annually and contains four parts: (1) fiscal
year summary; (2) details of receipts by source; (3) detail of appropriations, outlays, and balances
by agency; and (4) additional information.84 The third part of the Combined Statement comprises
separate reports by agency (also available in PDF and Excel format). The agency-level reports
contain information on outlays by TAFS.
September 2020 Monthly Treasury Statement on Receipts and Outlays of the
United States Government: DOL
The September 2020 Treasury statement for DOL lists gross outlays, applicable receipts, and net
outlays for DOL as a whole, as well as each component of the department (see Figure 11).85 Net
outlays for BLS in September 2020 totaled $58 million (see highlighted row). This Treasury
report does not disaggregate agency outlays by appropriation account or TAFS in the monthly
report.

81 GAO, Glossary, pp. 73-74.
82 See CRS In Focus IF10549, Deficits and Debt, by Grant A. Driessen.
83 31 U.S.C. §3513(a).
84 BFS, Combined Statement of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances, https://fiscal.treasury.gov/reports-statements/
combined-statement/. Prior to 2001, this report was called the “Annual Report.”
85 BFS, Monthly Treasury Statement: September 2020: Department of Labor, https://fiscal.treasury.gov/reports-
statements/mts/.
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Figure 11. September 2020 Monthly Treasury Statement: DOL
Bureau of Labor Statistics
This Month
Gross
Applicable
Classification
Outlays
Receipts
Outlays
Department of Labor:
Bureau of Labor Statistics
58
......
58
Departmental Management
24
......
24
Other
27
......
27
Proprietary Receipts from the Public
......
12
-12
Intrabudgetary Transactions
10,934
......
10,934
Total--Department of Labor
36,903
2,709
34,194
Source: Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, “Monthly Treasury Statement: September 2020: Department of
Labor.”
Notes: Rows and columns not containing data are not displayed for readability. Yellow highlights added by CRS.
Treasury Combined Statement: FY2020 BLS Salaries and Expenses Account
The DOL section from Part 3 of the FY2020 Combined Statement shows outlays by each TAFS
within each DOL component during FY2020 (see Figure 12).86 For the BLS Salaries and
Expenses multiyear TAFS (i.e., the $27 million appropriation), there were $0 in outlays, whereas
for the one-year TAFS, there were approximately $466 million in outlays.
Figure 12. FY2020 Combined Statement: DOL
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Salaries and Expenses Account
Account Symbol Appropriations and
Outlays
Balances,
Period of
Other Obligational
(Net)
End of
Availability
Authority
Fiscal Year
Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Salaries and Expenses,
Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Department of Labor
2020-2024
27,000,000.00
----------
27,000,000.00
2020
560,000,000.00 466,341,943.78
93,658,056.22
Source: Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, “2020 Combined Statement: Part 3: Department of Labor.”
Notes: Rows and columns not containing data are not displayed for readability. Yel ow highlights added by CRS.
Auditing and Financial Reporting
After the end of the fiscal year, Congress has mandated that most executive branch agencies
prepare audited financial statements and submit them to Congress and the OMB director (see
activity 7 of Figure 1). The Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 established the position

86 BFS, 2020 Combined Statement: Part 3: Department of Labor, https://fiscal.treasury.gov/files/reports-statements/
combined-statement/cs2020/index.html.
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of CFO at 24 large-sized executive branch agencies—known since 1990 as the “CFO Act
agencies”—as well as the annual audit requirement.87 An agency financial statement generally
includes a balance sheet, statement of net costs, statement of changes in net financial position,
and statement of budgetary resources (SBR).88 Financial statements generally provide agency-
level information, but an agency may choose to disaggregate data by component.89
In addition to agency-level financial reporting, Treasury, in coordination with OMB, is required to
submit a government-wide audited financial report to Congress and the President.90 The report,
known as the Financial Report of the United States Government, compiles information included
in agency-level audited financial statements and annual reports. The Government Accountability
Office (GAO) audits the government-wide report.91 Since the enactment of these requirements in
1994, GAO has not issued an unmodified opinion (also known as a “clean” opinion) on the
financial report due to material weaknesses in controls over financial reporting.92
Material Weakness
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal controls over financial reporting,
such that there is a reasonable possibility that a significant misstatement of an agency’s financial statements wil not
be prevented or detected on a timely basis.93
Relationship Between Financial Reporting and Reporting on Budget Execution
Of the four financial statements typically provided by agencies, the SBR provides a direct link
between annual financial reporting and budget execution reporting. SBRs are independently
audited, in contrast to SF 133s. The information contained within the SF 133s (which is reported
at the TAFS level), however, rolls up into the SBR (which is generally reported at the agency
level). The audit of agency SBRs, therefore, allows internal and external agency stakeholders—

87 31 U.S.C. §3515(a) (originally enacted by P.L. 101-576). The CFO Act originally mandated a pilot project to audit
the financial statements of 10 agencies. The Government Management Reform Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-356) expanded
the audit requirement to all 24 agencies named in the CFO Act, and the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act (ATDA) of
2002 (P.L. 107-289) further expanded this requirement to additional executive branch agencies. The ATDA allows the
OMB director to waive the audit requirement for agencies with budget authorities that does not exceed $25 million.
88 OMB instructs certain categories of agencies to provide additional financial statements including statements of
custodial activity or statements of social insurance. See OMB, Circular No. A-136, Financial Reporting Requirements,
June 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-A-136.pdf. Most federal agencies are
subject to financial accounting standards promulgated by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. See
https://fasab.gov/.
89 Agencies may choose to disaggregate information on financial statements with the exception of the SBR, which must
be presented on a combined basis. See OMB, Circular No. A-136, § II.3.1. The FY2020 DOL annual report did not
disaggregate the financial statements by agency sub-component. See DOL, “Agency Financial Report Fiscal Year
2020,” November 2020, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/reports/2020annualreport.pdf#page=47.
90 31 U.S.C. §331(e)(1), originally enacted as part of the Government Management Reform Act of 1994.
91 31 U.S.C. §331(e)(2).
92 GAO, Financial Audit: FY2019 and FY2020 Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government, 21-340R,
March 25, 2021, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-340r. For more information about the types of audit opinions,
see CRS In Focus IF10913, Defense Primer: FY2018 Department of Defense Audit Results, by Raj Gnanarajah.
93 Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Auditing Standard No. 5, “Appendix A: Definitions,”
https://pcaobus.org/oversight/standards/archived-standards/pre-reorganized-auditing-standards-interpretations/details/
Auditing_Standard_5_Appendix_A#:~:text=
A%20material%20weakness%20is%20a,detected%20on%20a%20timely%20basis.
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including Congress—to assess the reliability of budget execution data on the SF 133s as well as
the accuracy of amounts reported as “actual” in the President’s budget submission.94
Potential Issues for Congress
Reporting on agency budget execution is limited in some respects, even though it can be
extensive and complex. Issues associated with budget execution reporting extend to most
executive agencies. Given the continued interest in transparency around federal spending,
Congress may consider modifications to existing reporting mechanisms to support its oversight
and decisionmaking and to inform the public. In particular, Congress could consider policy
options that:
 expand the types of budgetary information that is publicly reported,
 improve the timeliness of budgetary information, and
 ensure that reported data are complete and accurate.
Improving the amount and quality of budget execution data reported by agencies may inform
congressional decisionmaking when considering agency budgets and supporting its oversight
activities. When considering the availability of budget execution data, Congress may consider
weighing costs as well as resource limitations in terms of available staff and existing IT
infrastructure.
Completeness, Timeliness, and Accuracy of USAspending.gov Data
In 2014, Congress passed the DATA Act to “increase and improve the public availability of
information about federal spending.”95 By making this information accessible, Congress hoped to
“facilitate oversight” and improve “the effectiveness and efficiency of federal spending
programs.”96 Since the enactment of the DATA Act, however, GAO has identified data quality
issues on USAspending.gov. In particular, account-level spending data on the website often did
not correlate with the data presented on SF 133s and the President’s budget submission.97 In
2021, 19 of 58 agency inspectors general (IGs) found errors when assessing the completeness of
summary level data by comparing agency data submissions on USAspending.gov to the SF
133s.98 Agency IGs attributed some of these data quality issues on USAspending.gov to the
Treasury DATA Act broker, a system that acts as an intermediary between agency financial
systems and USAspending.gov.99 Additionally, agency IG reports found internal control

94 GAO, Financial Audit Guide: Auditing the Statement of Budgetary Resources, GAO-02-126G, December 2001, p. 1,
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-02-126g.pdf#page=5. OMB, in its instructions to agencies, states that information
reported on the September 30 SF 133s (the last SF 133s of the fiscal year) should generally be consistent with an
agency’s SBR, the actuals column of the program and financing schedule in the Budget Appendix, and the Treasury
Combined Statement. See OMB, Circular No. A-11, §130.21(a).
95 U.S. Congress, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Digital Accountability and
Transparency Act of 2013, report to accompany S. 994, 113th Cong., 2nd sess., S.Rept. 113-139, (Washington, DC:
GPO, 2014), p. 2, https://www.congress.gov/113/crpt/srpt139/CRPT-113srpt139.pdf#page=4.
96 S.Rept. 113-139, p. 4.
97 GAO, Federal Spending Transparency: Opportunities Exist for Treasury to Further Improve USAspending.gov’s
Use and Usefulness, GAO-22-104127, December 2021, p. 15, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104127.
98 GAO, Federal Spending Transparency: OIGs Identified a Variety of Issues with the Quality of Agencies’ Data
Submissions, GAO-22-105427, p. 15.
99 GAO, Federal Spending Transparency: OIGs Identified a Variety of Issues, p. 20.
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deficiencies at agencies related to identifying and correcting data errors in internal or external,
third-party systems.100 Some agency IGs also reported IT limitations, including the inability of
agency systems to capture certain data elements.101
The usefulness of USAspending.gov in promoting spending transparency depends on the
accuracy of the data presented. Congress may consider instructing agencies to perform root-cause
analyses of their data quality issues and submit plans for the modernization or replacement of
legacy IT systems. In evaluating policy options, Congress may consider various trade-offs. For
example, increased transparency might entail additional upfront costs, but the replacement of
legacy systems and manual processes might also reduce long-term costs and increase accuracy.
Congress may also consider amending Section 3 of the Federal Funding Accountability and
Transparency Act to require USAspending.gov to report budget execution data at the TAFS level.
The current account-level reporting combines the TAFSs within an account and does not allow
for the disaggregation of obligated and unobligated amounts by period of availability. Separating
account-level information by TAFS would allow users to (1) track obligations associated with
specific pieces of legislation and (2) determine which unobligated amounts are due to expire at
the end of the fiscal year and which will remain available for future fiscal years. TAFS-level
budget execution reporting would also allow the USAspending.gov Spending Explorer to align
more closely with the budget execution data contained in the SF 133 reports.
Expanded Use of Treasury Warrants in Budget Execution Reporting
Treasury currently maintains warrants containing the statutory reference for each appropriations
account and TAFS in the CARS system, but this database is located on OMB’s internal MAX
website. Congress may consider requiring Treasury to make this information publicly available.
Additionally, Congress could require Treasury to link the statutory references in the
appropriations warrants to the budgetary execution data reported on the SF 133s as well as on
USAspending.gov. Doing so would allow Congress and the public to track spending associated
with particular statutory provisions.
Increased Reporting of Transfer Authorities
Congress may provide transfer authorities in either authorizing statutes or appropriations
measures. Information about agencies’ use of transfer authorities, therefore, could help inform
Congress’s decisionmaking as it considers annual appropriations measures as well as authorizing
legislation. Agencies are typically required to notify the relevant House and Senate
Appropriations subcommittees when making transfers.102 While some agencies make these
reports publicly available, others do not.103 For this reason, Members not serving on the
Appropriations Committees may not have the same access to information on transfers. OMB and
Treasury maintain reporting on transfers based on data collected from agencies, but this reporting
is not readily publicly available (see “Reporting on Transfers”). If Congress were interested in
expanding agency reporting of transfers, it might consider requiring agencies, OMB, or Treasury
to make information on transfers publicly available. Additionally, the House and Senate

100 GAO, Federal Spending Transparency: OIGs Identified a Variety of Issues, p. 23.
101 GAO, Federal Spending Transparency: OIGs Identified a Variety of Issues, p. 23.
102 In some instances, agencies are also required to notify the relevant authorizing committees.
103 For example, all DOD transfers implemented since FY1999 are available at http://comptroller.defense.gov/
BudgetExecution.html.
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Appropriations Committees could choose to make the transfer reports they receive from agencies
publicly available.
Congress may also seek to expand reporting requirements for transfers. For example, Treasury’s
CARS system includes all transfers that occurred during a fiscal year, along with a reference to
the relevant statutory authority. Congress may consider requiring Treasury to create a new
database containing all existing transfer authorities. This additional information, when combined
with the data already existing in CARS, could allow Congress to analyze the frequency at which
agencies use transfer authorities.
Transparency of OMB Apportionments
Some Members of Congress have expressed concern that OMB may use apportionment authority
to implement the policy preferences of the President without seeking congressional approval.
These Members have felt that OMB’s use of apportionment authority should be limited to
preventing the premature exhaustion of funds.104 In light of these concerns, Congress included
provisions in the FY2022 omnibus appropriations bill, enacted in March 2022, requiring OMB to
make all apportionment decisions, including associated footnotes, publicly available in a timely
manner.105 Additionally, the legislation requires executive agencies to notify Congress if an
apportionment is made to be conditional on further action.106
Congress might consider exercising oversight over implementation of provisions in the FY2022
omnibus appropriations act. In particular, Congress may wish to monitor whether apportionment
footnotes and their documented rationale contain sufficient detail for the purposes of
congressional oversight. Additionally, implementation of this legislation depends, in part, on
agencies notifying congressional committees if their apportionments have been made conditional
on further agency action either in writing or orally.107 Congress may wish to determine whether
this agency reporting aligns with reporting from OMB.
Congress may consider legislation to extend apportionment reporting provisions to future fiscal
years. The FY2023 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act introduced in
the House currently contains provisions extending the apportionment reporting requirements in
FY2023 and “each fiscal year thereafter.”108

104 U.S. Congress, House Committee on the Budget, “Chairman Yarmuth Statement on Signing of Omnibus, Inclusion
of Power of the Purse Reforms,” press release, March 15, 2022, https://budget.house.gov/news/press-releases/
chairman-yarmuth-statement-signing-omnibus-inclusion-power-purse-reforms. See also U.S. Congress, House
Committee on the Budget, Hearing on Congress’ Power of the Purse and the Rule of Law, hearings, 116th Cong., 2nd
sess., March 11, 2020, H.Hrg. 116-25, p. 78.
105 P.L. 117-103, Division E, Title II, §204.
106 P.L. 117-103, Division E, Title VII, §748.
107 P.L. 117-103, Division E, Title VII, §748.
108 H.R. 8254, Title II, §205. See also, U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Departments of Labor,
Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2023, 117th Cong., 2nd sess.,
June 28, 2022, H.Rept. 117-393, p. 11.
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Appendix. Federal Budget Process Phases Preceding
Budget Execution: Budget Formulation and
Appropriations and Budgetary Legislation
While not strictly a part of budget execution, two phases of the overarching federal budget
process establish a framework for the allocation of budget authority during budget execution as
well as the reallocation of budget authority through the transfer and reprogramming processes.
These phases precede budget execution and establish the budget authority against which agencies
may obligate funds:
1. Agency budget formulation and the President’s budget submission, and
2. The annual appropriations process.
Using the budget process phases and their associated activities outlined above as an organizing
framework (see activities 1 and 2 of Figure 1), the following sections of this appendix describe
the reporting associated with these two phases using the FY2020 BLS Salaries and Expenses
account as an illustrative example.
Agency Budget Development and the President’s Budget
Submission
The executive budget process begins with agency budget development (see activity 1 of Figure
1). The President is required to prepare and submit a comprehensive budget to Congress every
year.109 In practice, however, the President relies on agencies to bear the initial responsibility for
formulating their budget requests.110 Agencies submit their budget requests to OMB for review
and potential modification to ensure they are consistent with the President’s policy objectives.111
After OMB’s review and final decisions, information from agency budget requests is
incorporated into the President’s budget submission. Generally, budget requests submitted by
agencies to OMB for review and potential modification are not available to Congress or the
public.112
The President’s budget submission, while not legally binding, creates a starting point for
congressional revenue and spending actions.113 For this reason, budget development—as an
antecedent to budget execution—provides important context for understanding how Congress
may decide on a level of budget authority to enact into law by appropriations legislation.

109 31 U.S.C. §1105.
110 For additional information, see CRS Report R47091, The Role of Executive Agencies in Budget Development: In
Brief, by Dominick A. Fiorentino.
111 Shelley Lynne Tomkin, Inside OMB: Politics and Process in the President’s Budget Office (New York: M.E.
Sharpe, 1998), pp. 120-130.
112 Congress has provided statutory authorization for some agencies to submit budget and/or legislative information
directly to Congress, in effect bypassing the President and OMB. This “bypass authority” has also been referred to as
“concurrent” or “direct” submission. For more information, see CRS Report R47019, The Executive Budget Process:
An Overview, by Dominick A. Fiorentino and Taylor N. Riccard.
113 For additional information, see CRS Report R47092, The Role of the President in Budget Development: In Brief, by
Taylor N. Riccard.
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Budget Appendix Volume of the President’s Budget Submission
The President is statutorily required to provide certain information in the budget submission to
Congress, which is typically included in the Budget of the U.S. Government, Analytical
Perspectives, Historical Tables, and the Budget Appendix.114
The Budget Appendix volume includes detailed budget estimates and financial information on
individual programs and appropriations accounts as well as proposed text of appropriations
language. It also includes information on legislative and judicial branch appropriations that are
not included in other volumes of the President’s budget proposal.115
Agencies play a significant role in developing material to be included in the Budget Appendix.
OMB Circular No. A-11 contains detailed instructions on their preparation to ensure they adhere
to standardized conventions and formats. These materials in the Budget Appendix are prepared in
support of an agency’s initial budget submission to OMB and then, if necessary, revised to
conform to the decisions made by OMB and the President.
The major elements of these Budget Appendix materials for each annually appropriated account
include:
 proposed appropriations language for the upcoming fiscal year;116
 a program and financing schedule, which includes the obligations for a specific
account and its “program activities” and the sources of the account’s budget
authority;117
 an object classification schedule, which reflects the nature of things or services
purchased;118
 an employment summary;119 and
 a narrative statement of the program and its performance.120
In three columns, the program and financing schedule shows (1) actual appropriated amounts for
the previous fiscal year, (2) enacted amounts for the current fiscal year, and (3) proposed amounts
for the upcoming fiscal year reflecting the President’s requests. The schedule’s columns also
show actual obligations for the previous fiscal year, estimated obligations for the current fiscal
year, and estimated obligations associated with the President’s request.
FY2020 Budget Appendix: BLS Salaries and Expenses Account
The Budget Appendix volume of the President’s budget submission is organized by agency, with
each appropriation account listed below an agency’s name. The account names are separated by

114 For additional information, see CRS Report R43475, FY2023 Budget Documents: Internet and GPO Availability, by
Carol Wilson.
115 The President and OMB play no role in the development of legislative and judicial branch requests. Instead, entities
in the legislative and judicial branches transmit their budget requests to the President, who is then required to include
them in the budget submission to Congress without modification (31 U.S.C. §1105(b)).
116 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §95.5.
117 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §185.
118 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §83.
119 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §85.
120 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §95.11.
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what practitioners sometimes refer to as a “squashed diamond” symbol. Proposed appropriations
text and funding levels appear below the account name.
This report uses a relatively straightforward appropriations account—the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) Salaries and Expenses account and its FY2020 appropriation—in order to
provide a complete illustrative example of the budget formulation and annual appropriations
process. BLS is a component of the Department of Labor (DOL), which is one of the larger
cabinet-level agencies.121 The FY2020 BLS Salaries and Expenses account is located in the
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2020 (“Labor-HHS-Education”) appropriations bill.122 For FY2020, the
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act was enacted as Division A of the Further Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2020 (FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act).123
The FY2020 budget proposal for BLS included $550 million for the BLS Salaries and Expenses
account, and an additional $40 million for costs associated with moving BLS’s headquarters, for a
total of $590 million in proposed discretionary appropriations (see Figure A-1).124
Figure A-1. FY2020 Budget Appendix Proposed Appropriations Language
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account

Source: OMB, Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2020: Appendix, March 2019, p. 756.

121 31 U.S.C. §901, enacted as a part of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act), established the position of
CFO at 24 large-sized executive branch agencies—known since 1990 as the “CFO Act agencies.” DOL is one of these
24 agencies. For more information about the CFO Act, see CRS In Focus IF11610, Federal Financial and Budgetary
Reporting: A Primer, by Dominick A. Fiorentino.
122 See CRS Report R40858, Locate an Agency or Program Within Appropriations Bills, by Justin Murray.
123 P.L. 116-94, 2019 (133 Stat. 2548).
124 OMB, Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2020: Appendix, March 2019, p. 756, https://www.govinfo.gov/
content/pkg/BUDGET-2020-APP/pdf/BUDGET-2020-APP.pdf#page=760. The proposed appropriations text also
provides BLS with the authority to expend up to $65 million from the Unemployment Trust Fund. If enacted as
proposed, the agency may obligate against this amount in addition to the $590 million in discretionary appropriations.
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For BLS, the program and financing table appears below the proposed appropriations text (see
Figure A-2). The bottom half of the table (labeled “Budgetary Resources”) describes the total
proposed budget authority associated with this account in the third column. Budget authority may
comprise several sources, including discretionary appropriations, mandatory appropriations, net
transfers from other accounts or trust funds, and spending authority from offsetting collections.125
For the BLS Salaries and Expenses account, the FY2020 budget submission proposes $590
million in discretionary appropriations and estimates $99 million in spending authority for
offsetting collections for a proposed total budget authority of $689 million. The top half of the
program and financing table (labeled “Obligations by Program Activity”) disaggregates the $689
million in proposed obligations by program activities associated with the appropriations account.
Figure A-2. FY2020 Budget Appendix Program and Financing Schedule
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account

Source: OMB, Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2020: Appendix, March 2019, p. 756.

125 Offsetting collections refer to:
Collections authorized by law to be credited to appropriation or fund expenditure accounts. They
result from (1) businesslike transactions or market-oriented activities with the public, (2)
intragovernmental transfers, and (3) collections from the public that are governmental in nature but
required by law to be classified as offsetting. Collections resulting from businesslike transactions
with the public and other government accounts are also known as reimbursements.
GAO, Glossary, p. 29.
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Congressional Budget Justification
Agencies submit written justifications of their budget requests to Congress, which are of
particular use to appropriations committees in each chamber.126 An agency’s congressional budget
justification (CBJ) generally consists of a detailed description of each program activity and its
purpose. The CBJ’s descriptions of budgetary accounts are much more detailed than the Appendix
volume of the President’s budget submission and provide the relevant appropriations
subcommittees with information about how agencies would use the funds within each account.
Agencies also include explanations of proposed changes for the next fiscal year, often
concentrating on the incremental increase or decrease in spending. This additional information
may help the appropriations committees to evaluate the budgetary resources that have been
requested for the upcoming fiscal year. CBJs vary in form and content with each agency and
appropriations subcommittee of jurisdiction, reflecting the long-standing and ongoing
relationships between them. CBJs may be divided into multiple volumes by agency component or
by subject area.127
Although the budget justification is not included in appropriations acts and thus does not have the
force of law, it explains to the appropriations subcommittee the activities an agency plans to carry
out during the next fiscal year. A subcommittee often modifies these plans by including language
in the appropriations committee’s report accompanying the appropriations bill.

126 OMB, Circular No. A-11, §22.6. For more information, see CRS Report R47090, Executive Agency Justification of
the President’s Budget: In Brief, by Dominick A. Fiorentino.
127 For an illustrative example of a CBJ divided by agency component, see Department of Commerce, FY2022
Congressional Bureau Justification, May 2021, https://www.commerce.gov/about/budget-and-performance/FY-2022-
congressional-bureau-justification. For an illustrative example of a CBJ divided into multiple volumes by subject area,
see Department of Veterans Affairs, FY2022 Budget Submission, May 2021, https://www.va.gov/budget/products.asp.
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Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-40)
In 2021, Congress passed legislation to newly define agency budget justifications by statute and require their
posting online.128 Prior to the enactment of this law, statutory provisions that establish key aspects of the
executive budget process in Title 31 of the U.S. Code were relatively silent on the topic of agency budget
justifications that are submitted to Congress. 129 In practice, this silence left considerable discretion in the creation
of these documents.130 OMB’s Circular No. A-11 provides guidance to agencies requiring them to consult with
appropriators before submitting their budget justifications.131 Typically, the written justifications vary in form and
content with each agency and appropriations subcommittee, reflecting the ongoing relationship between them.132
An agency's budget justification usually contains a detailed description of its programs and activities and their
purposes as well as an explanation of the proposed changes in appropriations and program activities for the next
fiscal year.
Among other things, P.L. 117-40 newly defined in statute that agency budget justification materials are “the annual
budget justification materials of a Federal agency, or a component of a Federal agency, that are submitted, in
conjunction with” the President’s annual submission.133 Prospectively, these materials are required to be posted
on the website currently known as USAspending.gov, subject to OMB-developed data standards. Separately, the
President’s budget submission is also required to include a “tabular list” of the justifications.
FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification: Bureau of Labor Statistics
DOL’s CBJ consists of three volumes, which are further subdivided by agency components and
subject areas.134 The BLS CBJ is located in the first section of the third volume. The CBJ contains
more detailed information about the Salaries and Expenses account, including an explanation of
the proposed appropriations language, changes in requested budgets compared to previous fiscal
years, organizational charts, and the purposes of each budget activity.135
In the CBJ table depicted in Figure A-3, the total requested budget authority of $689 million
(labeled as “gross budget authority”) is disaggregated by requested appropriation ($590 million)
and estimated offsetting collections ($99 million). The offsetting collections are further
disaggregated by reimbursements ($34 million) and trust funds ($65 million).136 The
reimbursements relate to an agreement between BLS and Census Bureau for the latter to conduct
the Current Population Survey.137 Subtracting the $34 million in reimbursements from the total

128 P.L. 117-40, Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act of 2021, September 24, 2021 (135 Stat. 337),
amending FFATA (P.L. 109-282), located at 31 U.S.C. §6101 note.
129 Title 31, Section 1105, of the U.S. Code requires the President to submit an annual budget request to Congress. Prior
to enactment of P.L. 117-40, the provision made no mention of agency-produced budget justifications.
130 As part of the process for developing the President’s submission, Title 31, Section 1108, of the U.S. Code requires
agencies to submit budget requests to the President for potential modification. These agency-to-President submissions
“shall be prepared and submitted in the form prescribed by the President under this chapter and by the date established
by the President” (31 U.S.C. §1108(b)(1)).
131 OMB, Circular No. A-11, August 2021, §22.6.
132 See CRS Report R47090, Executive Agency Justification of the President’s Budget: In Brief, by Dominick A.
Fiorentino.
133 FFATA, §3(b)(2).
134 DOL, FY2020 Budget, https://www.dol.gov/general/budget/index-2020.
135 DOL, FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification: Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/
files/general/budget/2020/CBJ-2020-V3-01.pdf.
136 Trust fund refers to the Employment Security Administration account in the Unemployment Trust Fund, DOL,
FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification: Bureau of Labor Statistics, p. BLS-1.
137 BLS contracts with the Census Bureau to conduct the Current Population Survey. BLS obtains budgetary support for
this program and annually reimburses the Census Bureau for the collection and related support services associated with
the monthly survey and selected supplements. The authority for the Census Bureau to enter into this agreement is Title
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budget authority ($689 million) yields a total of $655 million in proposed budget authority that is
under consideration by the appropriations subcommittee (labeled as “Budget Authority Before
Committee”).
Figure A-3. FY2020 BLS CBJ
Aggregated BLS-Wide Amounts Available for Obligation

Source: DOL, FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification Bureau of Labor Statistics, p. BLS-3.
In the CBJ table depicted in Figure A-4, the total estimated obligations of $689 million are
disaggregated by “programs, projects and activities” (PPA). This proposed allocation of
obligations serves as a basis for an agreement between BLS and the appropriations subcommittee.
This plan is subject to negotiation, and the subcommittee may modify the allocation of planned
obligations among BLS’s activities in a committee report.

13, Section 8(b), of the U.S. Code. The authority for the BLS to enter into this agreement is Title 29, Section 2. See
DOL, FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification: Bureau of Labor Statistics, p. BLS-24.
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Figure A-4. FY2020 BLS CBJ
BLS Requested Budget Authority Disaggregated by PPA

Source: DOL, FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification Bureau of Labor Statistics, p. BLS-5.
Appropriation of Funds by Congress
Annual appropriations and other budgetary legislation provide agencies with budget authority,
which allows agencies to enter into obligations (see activity 2 of Figure 1).138 There are 12
regular (also referred to as annual) appropriations bills, each corresponding to an appropriations
subcommittee.139 The basic unit of regular appropriations acts is the unnumbered paragraph,
which during budget execution corresponds to an “account.”140 Funding for each department and
independent agency is organized in one or more accounts. Budget authority provided by Congress
to agencies typically takes the form of “lump-sum” appropriations that cover one or more specific
purposes and related programs.141
Under certain conditions, an agency might use discretion under law to reallocate funding. One
such option—transfers—involves the shifting of budgetary resources from one appropriations or
fund account to another either within an agency or across agency boundaries.142 Transfers are
prohibited unless an agency has specific statutory authorization to make transfers.143 This

138 See CRS In Focus IF12105, Introduction to Budget Authority, by James V. Saturno.
139 Two or more appropriations bills will often be combined into “omnibus” or “consolidated” appropriations
legislation. See CRS Report R46240, Introduction to the Federal Budget Process, by James V. Saturno.
140 Unlike most authorizing legislation, regular appropriations legislation is drafted as unnumbered paragraphs that
provide a lump-sum amount for each appropriations account.
141 GAO, Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, p. 6-5, https://www.gao.gov/assets/210/202819.pdf#page=19.
142 This section draws in part from CRS Report R43098, Transfer and Reprogramming of Appropriations: An Overview
of Authorities, Limitations, and Procedures, by Michelle D. Christensen.
143 “An amount available under law may be withdrawn from one appropriation account and credited to another or to a
working fund only when authorized by law” (31 U.S.C. §1532).
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prohibition prevents agencies from transferring funds from one account to another in ways that
may be inconsistent with the purposes for which Congress originally provided the funding.
Appropriations or authorizing statutes that provide agencies with transfer authority often include
limitations on that authority. For example, transfers may be limited to a specific dollar amount or
to a certain percentage of the total amount appropriated for the transferring account, the receiving
account, or both. In addition, statutes may limit the use of the transferred funds to specific
purposes. Agencies that exercise transfer authority are often required to notify Congress prior to
(or shortly after) carrying out certain transfers.144 Often, such requirements involve agencies
notifying the House and Senate Appropriations Committees a certain number of days prior to
transferring funds. Additionally, agencies reprogramming funds—that is, reallocating funds
among an account’s PPA—may be required to provide advance notification to Congress if the
reprogramming meets certain criteria or exceeds specified thresholds.
Unnumbered Paragraph in FY2020 Appropriations Act
The BLS Salaries and Expenses account is located in the “Labor-HHS-Education” appropriations
bill.145 For FY2020, the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act was enacted as Division A of
the FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act.146 In the Budget Appendix and CBJ, BLS
had requested $550 million for the BLS Salaries and Expenses account and an additional $40
million for costs associated with moving BLS’s headquarters for a total of $590 million in
discretionary appropriations. In the enacted appropriations legislation, Congress approved $587
million in total discretionary appropriations, and within this amount, $27 million was to remain
available for the move of the BLS headquarters (see Figure A-5).
Figure A-5. FY2020 Unnumbered Appropriations: BLS Salaries and Expenses
Account
FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act

Source: P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2548).

144 Congressional notification is often also required for reprogramming actions—the shifting of funds within an
account—that meet certain statutorily defined criteria.
145 See CRS Report R40858, Locate an Agency or Program Within Appropriations Bills, by Justin Murray.
146 P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2548).
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Transfer Authorities and Reprogramming Instructions in the FY2020
Appropriations Act
Section 102 of the FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act provided transfer authority
to DOL.147 This transfer authority was limited to 1% of discretionary funds appropriated to DOL.
Additionally, these transferred funds could not increase any PPA by more than 3% or create any
new PPAs. DOL was required to notify the House and Senate appropriations committees 15 days
prior to any transfer (see Figure A-6).
Figure A-6. DOL Transfer Authority
FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act

Source: P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2550-
2551).
Notes: This figure provides an example of a transfer authority that applies to DOL and is not meant to provide
a comprehensive list of DOL or BLS transfer authorities. Congress may provide transfer authorities in either
authorizing statutes or appropriations measures.
Section 501 of the FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act provided the DOL
Secretary with the authority to transfer unobligated balances from prior fiscal years to the same
accounts corresponding to FY2020.148 The authority to transfer unobligated balances is limited to
the same purposes and periods of availability of the prior year appropriations (see Figure A-7).
Figure A-7. Labor-HHS-Education Transfer Authority
FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act

Source: P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2605).

147 P.L. 116-94 (133 Stat. 2550-2551).
148 P.L. 116-94 (133 Stat. 2605).
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Section 514 of the FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act provides instructions for
the reprogramming of funds provided in the bill.149 The reprogramming of funds that meet certain
criteria—including those that create new programs, eliminate programs, or increase or decrease
program funding beyond a specified threshold—require prior congressional notification.
Specifically, agencies intending to reprogram funds in a manner that meets the specified criteria
must notify the House and Senate Appropriations Committees at least 15 days in advance of the
reprogramming (see Figure A-8).
Figure A-8. Labor-HHS-Education Reprogramming Instructions
FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act

Source: P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2608-
2609).

149 P.L. 116-94 (133 Stat. 2608-2609).
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Appropriations Committee Reports and Joint Explanatory Statements
Congressional reports supplement the legislative text of an appropriations act and usually provide
additional instruction to executive agencies related to budget execution.150 These reports
accompany the appropriations bills reported by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees
and the final appropriations measure as agreed to between the House and Senate.151 In addition to
explaining the provisions of an appropriations measure and its legislative intent, report language
may include additional instructions about the allocation of funds within an appropriations
account. These funding directives are generally not legally binding on agencies in the same way
as the statutory text of appropriations acts, because committee reports do not meet the
requirements of bicameralism and presentment under Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution.152
In practice, however, agencies may treat funding directives as practically binding, because they
understand that the report language indicates congressional intent for the use of the appropriations
and, if an agency chooses not to comply with such expectations, the agency might face
consequences in future appropriations acts.
When the House and Senate Appropriations Committees resolve differences between the
appropriations measures from their respective chambers, in addition to concurring on a final
version of the appropriations measure, they usually agree to further report language in the form of
a joint explanatory statement.153 This explanatory text is generally considered the most
authoritative source of congressional legislative intent with regard to that measure. In current
practice, the explanatory statement accompanying the final version of an appropriations measure
usually states explicitly how the explanatory text relates to the language contained in any
applicable appropriations committees’ reports.
House Appropriations Committee Report
The House Appropriations Committee report to accompany the FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education
appropriations bill contained information about the BLS Salaries and Expenses account and an
explanation for the committee’s recommended funding level as well as specific policy goals and
programmatic functions to be supported by the increased funding.154 Of particular importance for
budget execution, the committee recommended that the lump-sum appropriation be allocated in a
specific manner among a list of “budget activities” (see Figure A-9), which may be more
generally referred to as PPA.

150 This section draws in part from CRS Report R44124, Appropriations Report Language: Overview of Components
and Development, by Kevin P. McNellis.
151 For the final appropriations measure, an explanatory statement is included in the conference report if resolved by a
conference committee or printed in the Congressional Record if resolved by amendments between the chambers. For
further information on how the House and Senate may resolve their differences on legislation, including appropriations
measures, see CRS Report 98-696, Resolving Legislative Differences in Congress: Conference Committees and
Amendments Between the Houses, by Elizabeth Rybicki.
152 The exception to this general rule is when allocations or directives are incorporated by reference into the statutory
text of an appropriations act. In such cases, an agency would likely treat the incorporated directives as binding. For
more information, see CRS Report R46899, Regular Appropriations Acts: Selected Statutory Interpretation Issues, by
Sean M. Stiff.
153 This section draws in part from CRS Report R44124, Appropriations Report Language: Overview of Components
and Development, by Kevin P. McNellis.
154 U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2022, 116th Cong., 1st sess., May 19, 2019, H.Rept. 116-62, pp.
30-31.
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Figure A-9. House Committee Report 116-62
BLS Salaries and Expenses Account

Source: U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2022, 116th Cong., 1st sess., May 19, 2019, H.Rept. 116-62, p.
30.
Explanatory Statement for H.R. 1865/P.L. 116-94
For the FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, the explanatory statement to
accompany H.R. 1865 was printed in the Congressional Record on December 17, 2019.155
Section 4 of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, explains that the explanatory
statement has the same effect as a joint explanatory statement for divisions A-H (BLS
appropriations were located within Division A).
The explanatory statement regarding this Act, printed in the House section of the
Congressional Record on or about December 17, 2019, and submitted by the Chairwoman
of the Committee on Appropriations of the House, shall have the same effect with respect
to the allocation of funds and implementation of divisions A through H of this Act as if it
were a joint explanatory statement of a committee of conference.156
The explanatory statement also stated that the language included in the House report “carries the
same weight as language included in this explanatory statement and should be complied with
unless specifically addressed to the contrary in this explanatory statement.”157 The explanatory
statement changed the allocations stated in the House report, however. The explanatory statement
included a revised table for BLS containing recommendations for the allocation of budget
authority among PPA (see Figure A-10).158 This table contains the allocations proposed by BLS
in the CBJ (see label “A” in Figure A-10) as well as the allocations approved by Congress (see
label “B” in Figure A-10).

155 “Explanatory Statement Submitted by Mrs. Lowey, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations
Regarding H.R. 1865, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020,” Congressional Record, daily edition, vol. 165
(December 17, 2019), pp. H11061-H11161, https://www.congress.gov/116/crec/2019/12/17/165/204/CREC-2019-12-
17-house-bk3.pdf. The Senate Appropriations Committee did not report a Labor-HHS-Education appropriations act for
FY2020. Because an “amendments-between-the-Houses” process was used instead of a conference committee, there is
no conference report and no “joint explanatory statement of the managers” for H.R. 1865.
156 P.L. 116-94 (133 Stat. 2536).
157 “Explanatory Statement Submitted by Mrs. Lowey, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations
Regarding H.R. 1865, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020,” Congressional Record, daily edition, vol. 165
(December 17, 2019), p. H11061.
158 “Explanatory Statement Submitted by Mrs. Lowey, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations
Regarding H.R. 1865, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020,” Congressional Record, daily edition, vol. 165
(December 17, 2019), p. H11099.
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Figure A-10. Explanatory Statement
BLS Salaries and Expenses Report

Source: “Explanatory Statement Submitted by Mrs. Lowey, Chairwoman of the House Committee on
Appropriations Regarding H.R. 1865, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020,” Congressional Record, daily
edition, vol. 165 (December 17, 2019), p. H11099.
Notes: Red rectangles and labels “A” and “B” added by CRS. “A” refers to the amounts requested by BLS in the
CBJ, and “B” refers to the amounts enacted in the final appropriations bil .
During budget execution, agencies are expected to adhere to the funding allocations included in
the explanatory statement. BLS was required to submit operating plans for FY2020 that detailed,
at the level of PPA, any funding allocations that differed from those included in the explanatory
statement (see Figure A-11).159
Figure A-11. Operating Plan Reporting Requirement
FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act

Source: P.L. 116-94, FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, December 20, 2019 (133 Stat. 2608-
2609).

159 P.L. 116-94 (133 Stat. 2608-2609).
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Author Information

Dominick A. Fiorentino

Analyst in Government Organization and
Management

Acknowledgments
Mari Y. Lee, Visual Information Specialist, and Brion A. Long, Visual Information Specialist, collaborated
on the report’s figures.

Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan
shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and
under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other
than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in
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