The Federal Appropriation Process

Each year federal agencies, such as the Park Service and Forest Service, and the administration develop a budget for all of their needs and send this budget to Congress. Congress then decides how much each of the federal agencies will receive. Requests to protect important lands or to fund particular conservation projects are included in the budgets of some of these federal agencies. Through this federal appropriations process, Congress decides how much federal money will be spent on conservation and land protection. Take Action! Give your input to your Senators and Congressperson. Through this federal appropriations process, Congress decides how much federal money will be spent on conservation and land protection. Take Action! Give your input to your Senators and Congressperson.

Congress and the federal agencies have a number of important programs they use to protect and conserve lands those including: the Forest Legacy program administered by Forest Service under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Highlands Conservation Act administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) administered by multiple federal agencies.

Federal Agencies
Each federal agency, such as the U.S. Department of the Interior, begins formulating its budget early in the spring in preparation for incorporation into the President's budget.  As the agencies formulate their budgets they work with staff at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), called examiners.  On a side note, the OMB was created by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 and is tasked with the job of assisting the President and the agencies in preparing and implementing the executive budget.  In the late summer or early fall each federal agency submits its budget to the OMB.  The OMB staff then review the budgets in consultation with the President and his aides.

The President's Budget
The President's budget, officially called the "Budget of the United States Government", is required to be submitted to Congress early in the legislative session, no later than the first Monday in February. The President's budget is made up of detailed estimates of the financial operations of federal agencies and programs; policy and legislative recommendations; estimates of spending, revenues, borrowing, and debt; data on the actual and projected performance of the economy; and other information that supports the budget recommendations of the President.

* It is important to note that while the proposals and recommendations contained in the President's budget frequently guide congressional revenue and spending decisions the President's budget is only a request to Congress, Congress is not required to adopt the recommendations. 

Preparation of the President's budget normally begins in the spring (or earlier) each year, at least nine months before the budget is submitted to Congress, about 17 months before the start of the fiscal year to which it pertains.  The fiscal year of the federal government is different then the typical fiscal year January - December. The federal fiscal year begins on the October 1 preceding the calendar year for which the fiscal year is named (e.g., fiscal year 2005 begins on October 1, 2004, and ends on September 30, 2005).

Once the President's budget is submitted to Congress it is then up to Congress to put together its budget and begin the appropriations process.
 
The Congressional Budget
In order to start the budgeting process Congress puts together what is called a "budget resolution".  The budget resolution establishes the parameters within which Congress considers separate revenue, spending and other budget related legislation, i.e. the areas that Congress really wants to focus on and direct money to, such as more money towards defense spending less money towards conservation spending.   Congress, as required by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, must adopt the budget resolution by April 15th.  However, Congress does not always pass the budget resolution by April 15th, even though the House and Senate may have already passed their own budget resolutions separately.  But the Congressional Budget Act does allow some exceptions. For instance, House committees may consider regular appropriations bills after May 15th, even if the budget resolution hasn't yet been adopted.

Once Congress has adopted a budget resolution it then gives an "allocation" to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees (i.e., how much money they have to spend.)  The Appropriations committees then divide this up amongst their subcommittees.  The money given to the subcommittees is called a 302(b) allocation, which is in reference to particular sections of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.  The 302(b) allocation is important because this is the pot of money the subcommittees will draw from to fund various programs and projects.  For instance the House Interior Subcommittee will direct funds to programs under the Highlands Conservation Act or Forest Legacy from the 302(b) funds. 

The Appropriations Process
By precedent, appropriations bills begin in the House, usually in the spring.  Before the full Appropriations Committee acts on an appropriations bill it considers the relevant request that come out of each subcommittee, which for lands issues would be the Interior subcommittee (Chaired by Congressman Charles Taylor, R-NC).  The bill coming out of the Interior Appropriations subcommittee is called the Interior Appropriations bill.  Each subcommittee holds extensive hearings on appropriations requests shortly after the President's budget is submitted to Congress.  Once the subcommittees finish their hearings and "mark up the bill" i.e. vote on it, the appropriations bills then go to the full Appropriations committee for a mark up.  The outcome of this vote in the full Appropriations Committee is then reported and goes to the full House for a final vote.   The deadline for the House Appropriations committee to report its last appropriations bill is June 10th.  However, it is not unusual for appropriations bills to get bogged down and to pass after the June 10th deadline. 

The Senate typically considers appropriations measures after the House has passed them.  Similar to the House, the Senate Appropriations subcommittees also hold hearings on the appropriations measures but they are not usually as extensive.  After its subcommittee hearings the Senate then crafts its own version of the House bill to reflect its budgetary wishes.  These changes happen by the insertion of consecutively numbered amendments either in committee or on the Senate floor.  In recent times the Senate's budget request for conservation programs are higher then the House's.  Once the Senate has passed its appropriations bills the two chambers then get together to resolve the differences in their bills and consider all the inserted amendments.  Once this is done we are off and running.  The federal fiscal year begins in October and the federal agencies then begin to work with the money Congress has appropriated to them and their programs. 

For more information contact Kristen Sykes, Appalachian Mountain Club, (609) 818-9898.

Timeline of Federal Budget Process

(year one)

      
(year two)