To: SCB Leaders and
Members
From: John Fitzgerald, Policy Director
Re: The United States Federal Budget Process
Date: February 12, 2007
To accompany the release of the President’s budget proposal for
fiscal year (FY) 2008 (October 1-September 30, 2008), here is a brief
summary of the federal budget and appropriations process with citations
and Web sites further information.
SCB and the Budget Process
As experts and citizens, individual SCB members may want to contact their
representatives in the House and their two senators to discuss how elements
of the budget for next year may affect their conservation work. SCB members
may also want to contact directors of federal agency programs concerning
the budget requests that their agencies and departments are preparing
to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for FY2009.
The OMB eliminates or adjusts requests that do not complement the policy
and budget priorities of the White House. Congress is often interested
in learning the priorities of agencies when those have not been accepted
by OMB, since Congress may want to enhance the resources available in
a way that the agencies can accommodate productively.
Every Member of Congress has opportunities to affect the federal budget
in different ways. Thus every citizen of the United States has the ability
to speak to that process through her or his representative and senators.
Chapters and Sections may want to review elements of the budget that are
important to them or that may pose threats to biological diversity. Elements
of the budget may pose threats, for example, if they promote damaging
land uses or other damaging activity or if they provide insufficient resources
to control such uses or actions. Chapters and Sections are encouraged
to inquire and discuss the potential effects of budget choices with officials,
Members, and staff in the executive and legislative branches. However,
please contact the Policy Director or the Executive Director of SCB and
the chair of the Policy Committee well before announcing or formally adopting
positions on behalf of the chapter or Section. This will allow us to share
information and advice and avoid misunderstanding or the unnecessary appearance
of conflicts between elements of the Society.
Once the Society’s Board of Governors has adopted priorities for
policy issues, engagement in the budget and appropriations process is
likely to be a part of our work. We expect that Members of Congress, congressional
committees, and others may seek our advice concerning potential effects
of budget choices on biological diversity. In that regard, while we may
not be able to use all suggestions offered, we look forward to hearing
from sections and members about particular situations that illustrate
larger patterns, problems, or solutions related to the effects of the
budget and appropriations process on natural resources.
Sources of Additional Information
A good place to start any review of House or Senate action is the web site
of each -- www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. Their home pages list committees,
including the budget and appropriations committees, each of which have
web pages listing hearings and other business meetings scheduled and bills
reported (approved).
There are many budget summaries and briefings prepared by scientific societies
and conservation groups over the first several weeks after the President's
annual budget is proposed each year. To complement these or prepare for
them one can access the entire budget proposal and related materials,
which are available at the Government Printing Office Web site and searchable
in a variety of ways via the GPO web site: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/index.html
A coalition of conservation groups has published their recommendations
for the agencies they believe to be most important for conservation. That
recommended “Green Budget” is available in a large document
for downloading at: http://www.saveourenvironment.org/Green_Budget_FY2008_1.pdf
#
A Congressional Research Service Summary of the Budget Process has been
posted on the Web along with other CRS reports by our friends at National
Council on Science and the Environment:
http://ncseonline.org/NLE/CRSreports/information/info-6b.cfm#The%20Annual%20Appropriations%20Process#
The Budget and Appropriations Process
There are opportunities for providing useful information for the budget
process at each step in that process. These steps were set out under the
Budget Act of 1974 and related law. The Budget Act reformed the way both
Congress and the Executive Branch develop the budget and provided a somewhat
more orderly and transparent process. Although there are on average about
two supplemental appropriations bills approved each year in Congress in
response to theoretically unanticipated contingencies, in general, the
steps in the budget process are:
The Executive Branch
The budget for the next fiscal year (October 1 – September 30) is
presented in late January or early February of that calendar year. Many
months before that, agency civil service and executive professionals must
present to their politically- appointed agency heads, (Administrators
and Secretaries), changes they propose in the federal budget that they
oversee or spend. These are then sorted out by the Presidential appointees’
“executive committee” of each department or agency and sent
to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). A dialogue
then ensues between OMB and the agencies. Finally the full budget is proposed
to Congress. Each agency has its own detailed books, often bound in several
plastic-ringed folders, explaining the legislation that provides them
the authority to spend federal funds in the manner proposed, the baseline
amounts of money and staff needed to carry on under the status quo, current
uses, and reasons for changes in the funding requested.
Views and Estimates
Authorizing Committees provide their “Views and Estimates,”
or advice, to the Budget and Appropriations committees within the first
several weeks after the Budget is presented (usually by March 15th). While
these statements do not always address fine details, the committees that
write the law, oversee how it is implemented, and authorize spending on
the various programs are deemed to be the best experts in how those funds
should be directed. Therefore, the Budget Committees and Appropriations
Committees pay attention to the Views and Estimates of the authorizing
committees.
The Budget Resolution
The House and Senate Budget Committees consider the President’s
(proposed) budget, the views and estimates of authorizing committees,
and testimony they may receive. They then report budget resolutions to
be considered by each house. These allocate to the Appropriations Committees
portions of the budget in “functions” such as natural resource
management.
Appropriations
Each of the thirteen subcommittees then holds its own long series of hearings
over the late winter and spring. At these hearings, testimony is taken
from agency heads, individual members of Congress, and interested organizations.
These hearings have historically been surprisingly open for testimony
from a great variety of local and national groups who are typically limited
to 5 to 15 minutes per group or statement. These give the chairs and Subcommittee
Members a chance to ask questions, such as questions about how the funds
sought would be used. Each of the subcommittees then divides those allocations
between programs or line items within agencies that the subcommittee funds
through its appropriations bill, which it approves and reports to the
full committee for consideration.
Capability Statements
Agencies respond to requests for information about how they would use
proposed “enhancements” to their budgets, or cuts, with “capability
statements” that are cleared at high levels and indicate whether
the agency is capable of using the funds and how it would go about it
if they were provided.
Chairs Write the Initial Bills
Most of the work on these bills is done by the Subcommittee Chair and
his or her staff, but others on the subcommittee can work with the chair
to shape the bill or committee report. The report describes in more detail
how the funds should be spent. Subcommittee Members can also submit amendments
for a vote at the subcommittee or full committee meeting where they “Mark
Up” the bill as they add, amend, or delete provisions.
Appropriations bills include specific amounts that may be spent by the
executive branch. Often, the bills also include guidance limiting or directing
the spending in more detail than the limits set in the program’s
authorizing legislation. This guidance can be found in the bill or in
the report accompanying the bill and has traditionally been taken as advice
to be heeded if not binding law. Although much good can be accomplished
by creative use of appropriations bills, some forms of appropriations
guidance have seen little public scrutiny or have over-ridden general
laws on behalf of particular interests rather than reflecting publicly
derived findings and policy derived from law. These forms of guidance
are often called “riders” and “earmarks”.
Riders and Ghost Riders
The term “rider” is informal and loose, but a “rider”
is generally provision that rides within an appropriations bill affects
the policy itself and not just the money, often over-riding the authorizing
legislation rather than adding guidance within its scope. While legislating
in an appropriations bill violates the rules of the House, the House and
Senate often waive that rule because it is much more difficult to get
floor time for an authorizing bill and much easier to veto an authorizing
bill than to risk shutting down part of the government by vetoing an appropriations
bill.
Earmarks
The new House has vowed to restrict earmarks. It eliminated nearly all
earmarks from the omnibus (vehicle for all) continuing appropriations
bill and report for the remainder of FY07 passed early in the 110th Congress.
The new House removed provisions that would have directed agencies to
spend specific amounts of money on specific projects, buildings, or other
items rather than letting the agencies use their discretion within the
limits and priorities set in the authorizing laws.
Rules Committee
The Speaker and the Committee on Rules in the House and the Senate Majority
Leader in the Senate decide when most bills will be brought to the floor
but appropriations bills are among those most likely to make it. Thus
the Speaker’s staff is organized in general by subject area in accordance
with the appropriations subcommittees they work with most. The Rules committee
can provide open rules, allowing five minutes of debate each for any amendments
that the Parliamentarian determines are germane and not otherwise in violation
of the rules. Or the Rule may be modified, or less often, closed, with
few if any amendments allowed.
Holds
One Senator may threaten to filibuster a bill by debating it for days
under the Senates unique rules, and thus put a “hold” on the
bill to keep it from the floor unless the concern behind the hold is satisfied.
Holds are powerful but not used often or for very long against appropriations
bills, for they are most essential to the workings of government.
Floor Consideration
Once they are approved by the Appropriations Committees, usually by June
or July, the bills generally take priority over regular legislation when
the leadership schedules bills for consideration on the floor.
Conference Committee
Once bills are passed by each House, they are combined in a Conference
Committee of senior representatives drawn largely from each of the two
Subcommittees. These senior representatives write a Statement of Managers
or Conference Committee report that explains the combined form their bill
has taken. While not law, these and other committee reports form important
legislative history that helps agencies and courts understand the intent
of Congress as a whole when it wrote or approved the legislation. The
reports are given more weight than the purpose that one member may have
had in advocating a given change, although a Chairman’s or Member’s
letter to an agency is still a weighty thing. Conference Reports (actually
the bill and the report together) are privileged, meaning that they can
be brought to the floor ahead of other business. They are not amendable
as such, but a motion to instruct the conferees can send the report back
to conference with instructions to amend a certain provision.
Enactment
Bills take effect ten days after enactment unless they are vetoed or unless
less than ten days remain at the end of the legislative session after
they are presented for signature. In the latter case, the absence of a
Presidential signature results in a “Pocket Veto.” Depending
upon the wording, legislative provisions in appropriations bills may last
for the term of the bill or be permanent. In recent years, Presidential
signing statements have been used to give more guidance to agencies or
even future Congresses, even to the point of indicating an intention to
virtually disregard certain elements of legislation. However, the weight
of Presidential signing statements has not yet been well tested.
Codification of Federal Statutes and Regulations
Permanent parts of the law that apply to the public are codified by subject
area in the United States Code by title and section. The agencies promulgate
regulations as needed to provide further detail for the implementation
and enforcement of federal law generally following the Administrative
Procedures Act (APA). The U.S. Code and the Code of Federal Regulations
can be found on the web as well as in law libraries. (e.g., www.house.gov,
www.gpo.gov).
Omnibus and Continuing Resolutions
When Congress runs out of time it usually approves a continuing resolution
(a “CR”, which rarely carries riders or earmarks) to fund
the government for a limited period of time or gathers the remaining bills
into one consolidated omnibus resolution (that is, a vehicle for all things)
that may contain several titles that would normally be found in separate
appropriations bills and often funds those agencies not yet covered by
a separate bill for the remainder of the fiscal year.
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