Guide to the Budget Process

• Budget Process (Columbia University)
  • Annotated outline of the budget process with the titles of printed documents and links to those on the web
  • Background information, executive activity, legislative activity, the budget calendar, and news
  • Some web links go to a Columbia server; titles such as Congressional Quarterly must be accessed separately through the Documents Center's web page rather than Columbia's

Federal Budget (Presidential Submission)

• Federal Budget FY 1996+
  • Full text of budget and appendices in pdf format downloadable by chapter/agency
    • PDFs are digitally signed and require Acrobat 7.0 or 8.0
  • Also Historical Tables and Analytical Tables
  • Includes numerous spreadsheets in XLS format, among them Historical Tables and a state-by-state analysis

• Balanced Budget and Shutdown
  • Links to the various bills involved in the 1995/96 government shutdown and balanced budget attempts
  • Costs of the shutdown
  • Historical information only; most links dead

• Historical Budget Volumes
  • Budget of the United States Government, 1923/24- (HJ 2051 .A59 with 1923-69 in Buhr)
  • Lexis Congressional / Historical Indexes; search "appropriations or budget" in the Serial Set Collection

Agency Submissions

• Agency submissions often provide additional details to the President's budget request
• Agency for International Development
  • See Congressional Presentation
• Defense Department
• Education Department
• Energy Department
• Food and Drug Administration
• Health and Human Services
• Housing and Urban Development
• State Department

Congressional Budget Committees

• Web sites provide analyses and opinions
• Congressional Budget Office
  • Text of selected reports, beginning 1995, on the federal budget, budget issues (e.g. cost of army helicopters), and five-year economic projections
  • Bibliography of printed publications not available on the web
• House Budget Committee (Republicans)
  
• House Budget Committee (Democrats)
• Senate Budget Committee (links to separate Republican and Democratic sites)

Final Congressional Appropriations

• Current Status of Appropriations Bills (Library of Congress)
  • Chart by subject lists bill number, House and Senate committee and subcommittee approval, any reports as well as the conference report, and public law number
  • Time series begins 1998
  • Handy access for current bills being considered
  • GPO Access links to similar information in list form
• Appropriations Legislation (GPO Access)
  • Links to the full text of reports and appropriations laws beginning with FY97
  • Text and pdf formats

Outlays

• Public Budget Database (OMB)
  • Detailed spreadsheets of budget authority by agency and subagency since 1976, outlays since 1962, and receipts since 1962
  • There is no overall URL for the database but it can be located on the official OMB page for the federal budget each year

• Historical Tables of the Budget
  • Provides budget authority and outlays by agency, subagency, and function beginning in either 1940, 1962 or 1976
  • Also available in the Graduate Library with current year in the Documents Center: HJ 9 .U561

• Expect More
  • Rates government programs under the GW Bush administration for their effectiveness in relation to budget

Request v. Appropriation

• Congressional Quarterly Almanac (UMich Only)
  • Browse APPROPRIATIONS section; then choose year; then choose general field of appropriations (e.g. agriculture, foreign affairs, etc.)
  • Click on the link that says "sidebar" for a comparison of the President's request, House and Senate budget bills, and final appropriations
  • Procedure works at minimum back to 1970

Simpson/Bowles Commission

• National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
  • Official report entitled Moment of Truthof the commission to reduce the national deficit, issued December 2010
  • Recommends combined approach on entitlements (Social Security, medical care), reduced spending, and tax reform to reduced the federal deficit
  • Chaired by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles

Grace York
Retired Documents Librarian
University of Michigan
Ankur Mehta, Documents Assistant, June 2002
Graphics by Sherry Piontek and Barbara Perles

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~graceyor/govdocs/fedbud.html