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Congressional Budget Timeline

by | Feb 19, 2024 | National News

As Congress struggles to address government funding for Fiscal Year 2024 (and we are almost half way through that fiscal year), it is about to start considering the Fiscal Year 2025 budget as well.

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 (Public Law 13, 67th Congress, codified in part at 31 U.S.Code §501) established a requirement for the President to submit a budget request for the upcoming fiscal year near the beginning of each calendar year. [1]

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (the Budget Act) created a timetable to coordinate decisions on budgetary measures, including the budget resolution, appropriations bills, and any potential reconciliation legislation. While this timetable provides a framework for the steps and sequence of the congressional budget process, the timing of events often varies from year to year.

The annual submission of the President’s budget serves as a statement of Administration policy and priorities for the upcoming fiscal year and is typically seen as the beginning of the congressional budget cycle. The President is required to submit a budget by the first Monday in February (31 U.S. Code § 1105). Congress then has six weeks to enact a budget resolution, serving as an agreement between the House and the Senate on the maximum amount of funding that will be allocated in the 12 appropriations bills to fund the government. It’s similar to a family setting a budget and determining how much they are willing to spend each month/year to remain within budget and then allocating that overall budget to certain spending areas, like groceries, mortgage, insurance, and entertainment.

Discretionary spending comprises roughly one-third of federal spending and is provided through the annual appropriations process. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are responsible for developing annual appropriations measures, and each committee has 12 subcommittees, each responsible for one of the regular appropriations bills. The appropriations process generally involves action at the subcommittee, full committee, and chamber levels in the House and Senate. Preliminary action on the appropriations process begins shortly after the submission of the President’s budget in the late winter or early spring. Subcommittee and full-committee action on appropriations bills generally occurs from spring through the summer, after which appropriations bills may be considered as individual or packaged measures on the floor by the House or Senate from late summer and often into the new fiscal year.[2]

To avert funding gaps and government shutdowns, when one or more regular appropriations bills have not been enacted by October 1, Congress may provide interim budget authority to agencies by enacting continuing appropriations measures (commonly known as “continuing resolutions” or “CRs”). Continuing resolutions typically provide budget authority at a specified rate, generally allowing agencies to obligate funds at a rate necessary to continue operations funded in the previous fiscal year. Continuing resolutions also place certain restrictions on agency spending while they are in effect. For example, CRs generally prohibit agencies from carrying out new programs, projects, and activities that were not funded in the previous fiscal year or making decisions that undermine Congress’s ability to make final, full-year funding decisions. For FY2007, FY2011, and FY2013, some or all of the regular appropriations bills were funded through a full-year CR.[3]

The current CR is due to expire at midnight Friday March 8th. By that date, Congress must pass all 12 separate appropriations bills; lump some of them together in minibus fashion; lump all of them together in an omnibus bill; or pass another CR to prevent a government shutdown. With the level of acrimony in this session of Congress, and with national elections pending this November, EANGUS strongly believes that Congress will punt on the appropriations bills and pass a CR to fund the government until September 30th (end of the fiscal year) and turn their focus to Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations. In addition, EANGUS strongly believes that the acrimony will continue through the summer and hinder the legislative process in favor of campaigning. This will probably mean that the Defense Department will start Fiscal Year 2025 in October under CR authority, possibly until December.

EANGUS joins other like-minded organizations in calling on Congress to return to regular order and pass appropriations in time for the start of the next fiscal year. Operating under CR authority is always precarious and hinders any new starts, programs, and activities such as modernization. However, EANGUS is also a student of history and Congress hasn’t passed regular appropriations since 1997. We are hopefully optimistic that Congress will do their duty and fund the government in a timely manner, but we are also keenly aware of the dynamics present in this Congress. EANGUS wants you to be prepared for what we believe will be rocky road on the way to regular appropriations. (Under a CR, your pay and allowances and benefits will continue as usual).

[1] Congressional Research Report dated July 27, 2023; https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47235

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

 

— EANGUS National Office