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Authorization and Appropriation

Spending money is a two-step process:

  1. Congress must authorize the money being spent. Authorization is a declaration by a committee that a specific amount of money will be made available to an agency or department.
  2. After authorizing expenditures, Congress must appropriate the money by declaring how much of the authorized money an agency or department will spend. Sometimes appropriation bills come with strict guidelines for spending the money.

Congress usually ends up creating an appropriation bill for each government department, although sometimes departments are combined into a single bill. Each bill must be passed for that department to receive funding. Some appropriation bills are easily passed, but others are very controversial.

Continuing Resolutions

Congress must pass a budget every year by the start of the new fiscal year, which means that appropriation bills must be passed for every part of the government. If an appropriation bill does not pass, then the department whose budget is being discussed will shut down, and all nonessential employees will be temporarily out of work. Sometimes Congress passes a continuing resolution, which provides funding for a limited period (usually a week or two). Congress then uses the extra time to reach an agreement on the budget.

The Politics of Government Shutdowns

The federal government last shut down in 1995. The Republican-controlled Congress could not agree with President Bill Clinton on the budget, and Congress allowed the government to shut down to make the Democratic president look bad. Clinton, however, managed to convince most Americans that the shutdown was Congress’s fault, which damaged the Republicans’ reputations. Clinton gained a great deal of leverage over Congress via his comments in the press.

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