NARFE LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE

March 2011 – Alan Lopatin and Julie Tagen

PRESIDENT SUBMITS BUDGETOn or before the first Monday in February the president

submits to Congress a detailed budget request for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1st.

ON TO CONGRESS Once the President lays out his proposal, the House

and Senate budget committees can begin writing their budget resolutions.

The budget resolution sets targets for spending and tax revenue and identifies any policies that will need to move through reconciliation.

The resolutions are sent to the floor for a vote, and differences are resolved in conference.

These are Concurrent Resolutions which will not be signed by the President. They are blueprints that are enforced by House and Senate Rules.

FOLLOWING TWO TRACKS

AuthorizingCommittee

MANDATORYMANDATORY

AuthorizingCommittee

MANDATORYMANDATORY

AppropriationsAppropriationsCommitteeCommittee

AppropriationsAppropriationsCommitteeCommittee

DISCRETIONARY SPENDING

APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

The appropriations committees divide the aggregate discretionaryspending total provided by the budget resolution among each of their subcommittees.

DIVIDING THE TOTAL

Each Subcommittee conductions hearings on the programs undertheir jurisdiction and votes out a bill. The full appropriations committee marks up the bill and sends it to the floor. Both chamberspass their bills and iron out the difference in conference.

12 VOTES 12 VOTES

FINAL BILL GOES TO THE PRESIDENT

The House and Senate vote again, and the conference report is sent tothe president for signature or veto.

All of the appropriations bills are supposed to be signed by the president by October 1, but that rarely happens.

To avoid a government shutdown, a series of continuing resolutions are approved to continue funding the agencies at theircurrent levels.

RECONCILIATION ANDOMNIBUS LEGISLATION

Reconciliation occurs if Congress needs to legislate policy changesin MANDATORY spending or tax laws to meet annual targets laid out in the budget resolution.

The resolution requires the relevant authorizing committees to come up with a plan and report back to the budget committees.

The budget committees combine all of the authorizing plans into an omnibus package and send it to the floor for a vote.

The House and Senate work out differences in conference, vote againand send the final version to the president for signature or veto.

AUTHORIZINGCOMMITTEES

BUDGET COMMITTEE

BUDGET COMMITTEE

AUTHORIZINGCOMMITTEES

The deficit is the fiscal year difference between what the government takes in from taxes and other revenues, called receipts, and the amount of money the government spends, called outlays.

You can think of the total debt as accumulated deficits. Deficit spending requires the U.S. Treasury to borrow money to raise cash needed to keep the government operating. The Treasury borrows money by selling securities like treasury bills, notes, bonds and savings bonds to the public.

The treasury securities issued to the public and to the government trust funds (like the Civil Service Retirement & Disability Trust Fund) then becomes part of the total debt.

NARFE LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE

March 2011 – Alan Lopatin and Julie Tagen