FOREWORD The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-344; the "Budget Act") and the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-177; "Gramm-Rudman-Hollings"), as amended by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-119; the "1987 Reaffirmation Act"), have become two of the most important laws affecting Congress' legislative agenda. Because of the increasing importance of the budget process, the Budget Committee has received numerous inquiries for information about the operation of the Budget Act and Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. This committee print provides a general explanation of the budget process (including the effect of the revised Gramm-RudmanHollings procedures), a historical table of action on budget resolutions, examples of budget resolution language, and a glossary of budget terms. Nothing in this volume represents the views of the Budget Committee or any of its members. (III) CONTENTS Page January: Receipt of the President's Budget Request February: Budget Committee Hearings, Committee Views, and CBO APPENDICES I. Historical Table: Budget Resolutions and Reconciliation Bills IV. Example of Spending by Budget Function V. Example of Reconciliation Instructions. VI. Example of Senate Committee Crosswalks. VII. Budget Process Timetable............ VIII. Special Rules for Treatment of Programs IX. Calculating Uniform Percentage Reductions.. 35 INTRODUCTION The Constitution gives Congress the power to allocate the resources of the Federal Government. In order to accomplish this task, Congress has developed three fiscal processes. First, Congress has an authorization process that establishes Federal tax laws and creates Federal programs to respond to national needs. The Senate has 16 authorizing committees and the House has 19 authorizing committees that have jurisdiction over particular areas of national concern. The second process is known as the appropriations process. While the authorizing committees establish Federal programs, the Appropriations Committee in each House of Congress fund those programs. The third-and newest-fiscal process in Congress is the congressional budget process. Under this process, Congress annually establishes an overall fiscal policy on how much total spending and revenues ought to be and how total spending should be divided among the major functions of government such as defense, agriculture, health, and so forth. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings and the 1987 Reaffirmation Act provide for expanded budget procedures. This publication provides a general explanation of why we have a congressional budget process and how it functions. WHY HAVE A CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET The Budget Act established the congressional budget process. Two developments provided the impetus for the enactment of this legislation. One development was an increasing realization in the Congress that it had no means to develop an overall budget plan. Prior to 1974, Congress each year received the President's budget containing the President's many spending and revenue proposals and then proceeded to act on those proposals individually. There existed no means for the Congress to establish its own total spending and revenue levels or broad spending priorities to serve as guidelines for both Houses to follow as they worked on specific spending and revenue bills during the spring and summer. A more immediate cause for the Budget Act was a dispute in the early 1970s over presidential authority to impound money appropriated by Congress. President Nixon asserted authority to with |