Appropriations bill (United States) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Types of appropriations bills[edit]
There are three types of appropriations bills:
regular appropriations bills,
continuing resolutions, and
supplemental appropriations bills.
[1] In any given fiscal year, all three may be used.
Regular appropriations bills[edit]
Traditionally, regular appropriations bills have provided most of the federal government's annual funding.
[3] The text of the bill is divided into "accounts" with some larger agencies having several separate accounts (for things like salaries or research/development) and some smaller agencies just having one.
[3] The appropriations bill provides a specified amount of money for each individual account, and can also include conditions or restrictions on the use of the money.
[3]
Agencies cannot move money from one account to another without permission from Congress, which can be found in some appropriations bills.
[3] These are known as transfers. Agencies can shift some of the funding around to different activities within the same account, known as reprogramming.
[3] The appropriations subcommittees oversee such changes.
Occasionally Congress packages several of the twelve appropriations bills into one larger bill called an
omnibus spending bill or an omnibus appropriation measure. Often the bills are considered separately at the beginning and get combined later because inability to pass bills individually has led to the exigency of a potential government shutdown.
[3] Omnibus bills can "veto-proof" items: measures that the president would otherwise veto can be passed by folding them into an omnibus bill, the vetoing of which would be perceived as harmful.
[4]
Continuing resolutions[edit]
When a new fiscal year starts on October 1 and Congress has not passed some or all of the regular appropriations bills, Congress extends their funding and budget authority from the previous year, with possible minor modifications, using a continuing resolution.
[1] If all twelve regular appropriations bills have been passed, a continuing resolution will not be necessary.
Continuing resolutions typically provide funding at a rate or formula based on the previous year's funding.
[5] The funding extends until a specific date or regular appropriations bills are passed, whichever comes first. There can be some changes to some of the accounts in a continuing resolution.
History[edit]
Between fiscal year 1977 and fiscal year 2012, Congress only passed all twelve regular appropriations bills on time in four years - fiscal years 1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997.
[5] Every other fiscal year since 1977 has required at least one continuing resolution. For example, in 2013, Congress failed to agree on any regular appropriations bills prior to the start of fiscal year 2014. An attempt was made to pass the
Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014 (H.J.Res 59) prior to October 1, but the House and Senate could not agree on its provisions, leading to the
United States federal government shutdown of 2013.
[11][12] The federal government resumed operations on October 17, 2013 after the passage of a continuing resolution, the
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, that provided funding until January 15, 2014.
[13] On January 15, 2014, Congress passed another continuing resolution,
H.J.Res. 106Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, to provide funding until January 18, 2014.
[14]Congress finally passed the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, an omnibus appropriations bill, on January 17, 2014 to provide funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2014.
[15]
