The appropriations bill is a crucial legislation that provides funding for discretionary spending of the US government. It is passed annually through thirteen separate bills and is a major responsibility of Congress and the President. The process involves crafting bills by subcommittees, followed by a conference committee to reconcile differences, and finally, a vote by both houses of Congress and the President’s signature.
In the United States, an appropriations bill is a specific type of legislation that authorizes and provides the money needed to finance the discretionary spending of the United States government. Funding of the United States government is provided through thirteen separate appropriations bills, which must be passed each year before the start of the fiscal year to avoid disruption to the functions and activities of the federal government. The appropriation process is one of the most important responsibilities of Congress and the President and consumes a large percentage of the time and energy of members of government.
An appropriations bill provides funding for federal government discretionary spending. Discretionary spending is spending that can change from year to year as government priorities change. This is in contrast to non-discretionary spending, such as social security benefits, which are statutory expenditure.
The appropriations bill process typically begins early in the year after the President of the United States has submitted his budget proposal to Congress. Congress then passes its own version of the budget, which may or may not mirror the President’s budget. Once the president sends his budget to Congress and Congress provides its own budget resolution, the real work and difficult task of allocating government resources begins.
In both the House of Representatives and the Senate, several subcommittees begin the process of crafting an appropriations bill for their specific jurisdiction. For example, Congress can allocate $1 billion US dollars (USD) for Department of Defense spending. The single subcommittee dedicated to defense spending then determines where to spend the $1 billion that is allocated to the Department of Defense. This scenario occurs in all subcommittees of both houses of Congress charged with drafting an appropriations bill.
Once each subcommittee has finished crafting its specific appropriations bill, the bill is forwarded to a conference of members of the House and Senate. The conference committee’s job is to work out the differences between appropriations bills passed by both houses of Congress in an effort to create one version of each bill that will pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives. This final version of each appropriations bill is then voted on by members of each House. If the appropriations bill passes both houses of Congress, it is forwarded to the President for his signature and approval. If he signs the bill, it takes effect on October 1, which is the start of the fiscal year for the federal government.
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