The Federal Budget Process Never Ends

April 6, 2009

         For as long as I can remember, the federal budget has been in the news every week of my life. The president, Congress, committees, cabinet officials, and lobbyists wheel and deal, debate and deliberate. The process never ends.

               On February 26, President Barack Obama sent his first budget resolution to Congress. Titled “A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America’s Promise”, it calls for $2.186 trillion in revenue and $3.938 trillion (that’s three trillion, 938 billion) dollars in spending for the 2010 fiscal year. That gives us a $1.752 trillion dollar deficit for fiscal year 2010. The revenue figures and the spending figures reflect the tax cuts and projects agreed to in the stimulus package. It’s 140 pages long and you can read it at www.whitehouse.gov/omb.

               The United States budget is more than just a list of where we’re spending our money. The president’s budget reveals his goals and priorities for the country. The final version adopted by Congress reflects how much Congress agrees with him. Obama’s budget extends the work begun with the economic stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

               For the past eight years, the federal budget has been a fraud. Even though the US has waged two wars, President Bush and the puppet Congress did not include their financial costs in the budgets. That’s $864 billion of your tax dollars that the politicians simply didn't count because it made them look bad. That is immoral, unethical, and irresponsible. Obama’s budget includes the wars as well as every other dollar that the government will spend in fiscal year 2010.  That’s why the budget figures are so much higher than they were in recent years. As the president said, we can’t fix the problems if we won’t identify them.

               Each federal fiscal year, and each new budget, begins on October 1 of the prior calendar year. Fiscal year 2009 began on October 1, 2008 and ends on September 30, 2009. The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 outlines a specific timetable for submitting, considering, debating, approving, monitoring, and auditing the budget.

               A budget resolution is a broad statement of goals and priorities for five fiscal years. Authorizing legislation sets the spending limit for a particular category. An appropriations bill gives a specific amount of money to a specific government agency for a specific purpose, like salaries, office expenses, or programs. A reconciliation bill allows Congress to change revenue and spending figures to achieve a specified budgetary result.

               In the fall of the year, each federal department develops its budget request and sends it to the White House Office of Management and Budget. OMB compiles the separate requests into the president’s budget resolution. The president sends the resolution to Congress in February.

               All House and Senate committees hear testimony from agency officials to evaluate their requests. Next, the topic committees (agriculture, defense, education, etc.) make their recommendations to the respective Budget Committees. By April 1, the Budget Committees send their resolutions to the House and Senate floors for debate and voting. That’s where we are now.

               Congress completes its action on the budget resolution by April 15, and then the Appropriations Committees get their turn to examine the proposals. That process is completed by June 30. By July 15, the president submits the mid-session review of his budget to Congress. And then every committee gets a second look at the plans.

               Congress must pass a final budget before the fiscal year begins on October 1. If they don’t, they can pass a “continuing resolution” in which they agree to operate the government under the old budget until they settle their differences. Or they can shut down the entire federal government, as they did in 1995 under President Clinton.

               Even after the budget is final, there are implementation, reporting, review, and auditing requirements. It takes two and a half calendar years to complete the budget process for just one fiscal year. Federal agency staff members deal with three fiscal years at once – implementing the current year’s budget, requesting funds from Congress for the next year, and planning for the year after that.

               And after all of that work, no one is ever really happy with the result.

               For more information, go to the Office of Management and Budget, www.whitehouse.gov/omb; the Congressional Budget Office, www.cbo.gov; and the Congressional Budget Committees at www.budget.house.gov and www.budget.senate.gov.