that the resulting revenue should be used to reduce individual income tax rates and to increase threshold amounts for tax payments by individuals when tax reform legislation is considered. The House amendment contained no such provision. The Senate conferees receded to the House. ALLOCATION OF BUDGET AUTHORITY AND OUTLAYS TO SENATE Pursuant to section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act, the conference substitute makes the following allocation of budget authority and outlays among the committees of the Senate. SENATE COMMITTEE BUDGET AUTHORITY AND OUTLAY ALLOCATIONS PURSUANT TO SEC. 302 OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT, FISCAL YEAR 1985 SENATE COMMITTEE BUDGET AUTHORITY AND OUTLAY ALLOCATIONS PURSUANT TO SEC. 302 OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT, FISCAL YEAR 1986 SENATE COMMITTEE BUDGET AUTHORITY AND OUTLAY ALLOCATIONS PURSUANT TO SEC. 302 OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT, FISCAL YEAR 1986—Continued ATTACHMENT "F" Terms Used in the Federal Budget Process These definitions are intended to explain how the terms are commonly used by the Budget Committee and its staff in scorekeeping against budget resolutions. For more formal expositions, see two GAO documents, A Glossary of Terms Used in the Federal Budget Process (Third Edition, March 1981) and Principles of Federal Appropriations Law (June 1982). Unless otherwise specified, all quotations are from the GAO glossary. The explanations may not parallel the definition of terms under House rules and precedents. ADVANCE APPROPRIATION—See APPROPRIATION. ALLOCATION-See CROSSWALK. APPROPRIATION: In general, a bill or law that provides new BUDGET AUTHORITY. Appropriations allow "Federal agencies to incur obligations" for specified purposes. This use of the term is consistent with Article 1, Section 9, of the Constitution: "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." In this sense, the term "appropriation" clearly includes DIRECT SPENDING. Most commonly, however, the term is limited to bills under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Appropriations. Sometimes the term is used in an even more limited sense: "appropriation bill" means a discretionary action by the Appropriation Committee, as contrasted with either a NOMINAL APPROPRIATION or DIRECT SPENDING, defined below. A bill can appropriate from any type of FUND. • Direct spending (also known as "backdoor appropriation") refers to any SPENDING BILL other than a DISCRETIONARY appropriation action by the Appropriations Committee. Permanent appropriation means that the new BUDGET AUTHORITY for the BUDGET YEAR is provided by a law enacted in some previous session. That law need not really be permanent; it need not provide new BUDGET AUTHORITY for all future years, just for the BUDGET YEAR. Almost all permanent appropriations are direct spending, though there are a few permanent appropriations that are not backdoor but rather are within the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Com mittee. Nominal appropriation refers to three different types of Appropriations Committee actions: (1) An "appropriation" of LIQUIDATING CASH to pay for an existing contractual commitment that was entered into by an agency pursuant to an APPROPRIATION of CONTRACT AUTHORITY. BUDGET AUTHORITY is scored when the (163) CONTRACT AUTHORITY is provided, so it is not scored when the contracts are later liquidated. (2) An "appropriation" to repay debt, i.e., to reimburse the Treasury (or some other lender) for an obligation that was incurred by an agency pursuant to an APPROPRIATION of BORROWING AUTHORITY. BUDGET AUTHORITY is scored when the BORROWING AUTHORITY is provided, so it is not scored when the resulting agency debt is later repaid. (3) A current appropriation to pay for existing ENTITLEMENT or other mandatory law. In CURRENT LEVEL scorekeeping, BUDGET AUTHORITY is scored as soon as the entitlement law is enacted, so it is not scored when the mandatory funding is later provided. But in CURRENT HOUSE STATUS scorekeeping, BUDGET AUTHORITY is scored with the Appropriation bill that funds the mandatory payment. The three terms just discussed are essentially related to funding for mandatory programs. The following terms tend to be used to describe both mandatory and discretionary appropriations, and in fact are most frequently used to describe features of bills reported by the Appropriations Committee. Current appropriation means that enactment of the appropriation bill is scheduled for the current session of Congress. Almost all current appropriations are by the Appropriations Committee, but any bill this session providing new BUDGET AUTHORITY is a current appropriation. An appropriation that merely funds existing ENTITLEMENT law is often called a current appropriation. Frontdoor appropriation refers to a DISCRETIONARY appropriation of BUDGET AUTHORITY by the Appropriations Committee. ● Regular appropriation refers to funding provided in any of the 13 annual bills reported by the Appropriations Committee. It does not include any permanent appropriations, nor supplemental or deficiency appropriations, or temporary continuing appropriations. However, a continuing appropriation that is not merely stopgap funding, but in effect a full-year bill, is often considered a regular appropriation. Definite appropriation means that the amount of BUDGET • Indefinite appropriation means that the amount of BUDGET AUTHORITY that is appropriated is not specified. It depends on outside factors, and is usually open-ended. The amount scored is the best estimate of actual use. Most permanent appropriations are indefinite. One-year appropriation means that the new BUDGET AUTHORITY is available only in the FISCAL YEAR for which it was appropriated. It is available for a TERM of one year. If it is not obligated in that time it will expire. Multi-year appropriation means that new BUDGET AUTHORITY is available in the FISCAL YEAR for which it was appropriated and a specified number of additional years. If is not obligated by the end of the specified period it will expire. The amount appropriated is all legally available in the first |