Sub-Stances
  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Articles
    • All Articles
  • Travel
  • Discover
  • Contact
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy

What is the US budget? // GABRIELLA GRICIUS

10/12/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Source: National Priorities Project
The US Budget is one of the most talked about and least understood parts of how the American government functions. And it’s no surprise; budgeting is difficult and complex. Imagine your own personal budgeting process and multiply it times 300 million. The number of actors needed for that can’t just be one person, which means the sole power doesn’t directly go to the President.

The Constitution actually ascribes the vague “power of the purse” to Congress. In other words, Congress has the ability to collect taxes, to create taxes and to borrow money. However, as the founders found in many cases, the details of that process remain unclear. Consequently, the process has evolved with our government.Now, there are a series of federal agencies whose sole purposes are to create the budget. They include the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Government Accountability Office (GOA) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Every year, Congress goes through the appropriation process and passes a series of appropriation and authorization bills. Appropriation bills state how much money is allocated to a particular department. Authorization bills actually give the government permission to spend that money.


The Five Steps in the Federal Budget Process
  1. President Submits a Budget Request to Congress in February for the upcoming fiscal year beginning October 1;
  2. House and Senate pass budget resolutions;
  3. House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees “markup” appropriations bills;
  4. House and Senate vote on appropriations bills and reconcile differences;
  5. President signs each appropriations bill and budget becomes law. Once 12 appropriations bills are signed, the budget process is complete.

If the budget is not complete by October 1 and it rarely is, then Congress must pass Continuing Resolutions so that federal agencies can still receive funding while negotiations are ongoing. You might remember 2013 where the government shut down. Those were situations when an agreement was not reached and funding was shut off to federal agencies. In fact, Congress has only passed all twelve regular appropriation bills four times between 1977-2012. If Congress can’t decide on twelve separate appropriations bills, they can also pass an omnibus bill - one bill that encompasses twelve  funding areas.

Here at Sub-Stances, we’re going to be diving into what makes up the budget, how the funds are redistributed and providing some transparency to the budget process itself. The budget is an important process and one that many Americans only have a surface understanding of. Over the next few months, we’ll be breaking down each segment of the budget and bringing everything into layman’s language. Look forward to deep dives on defense, energy, social security and many more!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    All content posted on this site belong to their respectable owners. Each author holds all copyrights, and all rights are reserved to the holder. 

    Archive

    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Asia
    Australia
    Bianca Brandtner
    Budget
    City Expose
    Europe
    Florane Lavend'homme
    Gabriella Gricius
    Guest Contributor
    Iceland
    Jessica Hoefer
    Josephine Bush
    Middle East
    Midterms
    North America
    Oceania
    Russia
    South Africa
    South America
    Worldwide

    RSS Feed

*All content posted on this site belong to their respectable owners. Each author holds all copyrights, and all rights are reserved to the holder.

Categories

Home
Podcasts
Articles
Travel
Discover
About Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
In Discover:
Books
Films
Music
Recipes
Factoids
Quizzes
Gifts

About Us

Picture
We are four international young women aiming to make change locally, nationally and globally. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as iTunes under Sub-Stances.
Support Us Via Patreon

Contact Us

    STAY UPDATED!

SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Articles
    • All Articles
  • Travel
  • Discover
  • Contact
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy