Appropriation is the act of setting aside treasury money for specific programs. Enabling laws create programs, while appropriation bills authorize the withdrawal of money from the treasury. Some programs require separate appropriation bills, while others do not. Discretionary programs require funding each time a budget is approved, and omnibus expense bills combine appropriations for various programs. The US Constitution specifies that all expenditure bills must be initiated by the House of Representatives, and both houses of Congress must pass any appropriation bill.
Appropriation is the legislative act of setting aside treasury money for spending on a specific program. The term “appropriation” is used of expense bills because they authorize the appropriation, or withdrawal, of money from the treasury. For example, there are appropriation bills for highway construction. If the required majority of members of the legislature votes in favor of that bill, the bill passes. By passing the bill, the legislature authorized that specific amount of money to be spent on that program, which in this example means highway construction or maintenance.
Many government spending programs actually require two types of bills. First, the legislator must pass an enabling law to create a program. To continue the highway construction example, the legislature could authorize a program to build a new limited-access highway from one city to another. Such an authorization bill would normally also suggest an expected level of spending.
Such a project could take several years to complete. In each year, the legislature would then have to pass a bill to appropriate from the treasury a certain amount of money to be spent on building that highway. If, in a subsequent year, before the highway is finished, the legislature does not make any appropriations for that project, then that project will not receive funds that year.
There are also government spending programs that do not require a separate appropriation bill. The bill that authorizes this type of program, like the Social Security Benefits Program for US Residents, also authorizes the means to embezzle money on an ongoing basis. That type of programme, usually called a compulsory programme, does not need a separate allocation.
Programs that require funding each time the legislature approves a budget are called discretionary programs. Appropriations for particular programs might be made in individual bills for specific programs, but appropriations for a wide variety of programs are often made simultaneously in a much larger bill. These combined appropriation bills are referred to as omnibus expense bills.
In the United States, the requirements for appropriations are specified in the Constitution in Article I, Section 7, Subsection 1. It is required that all bills of expenditure be initiated by the House of Representatives. Both houses of Congress, however, must pass any appropriation bill before the money the bill proposes to spend is actually withdrawn from the treasury.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
