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This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study--prepared at the request of the Senate Committee on the Budget--describes the size and content of supplemental appropriation laws from fiscal year 1990 through 1999. It also examines the extent to which those supplemental appropriations were offset by rescissions. The study updates two previous CBO publications: Supplemental Appropriations in the 1970s (July 1981) and Supplemental Appropriations in the 1980s (February 1990). It incorporates information from those reports to show trends in supplemental appropriations over the past three decades.

Ellen Hays of CBO's Budget Analysis Division prepared the study under the supervision of Arlene Holen and Peter Fontaine. The author owes a tremendous debt to Priscilla Aycock, former chief of the Scorekeeping Unit in CBO's Budget Analysis Division, for her help in turning CBO's scorekeeping data into historical data. Janet Airis, Paul Burnham, Sandy Davis, Mark Musell, and Jennifer Smith of CBO provided helpful comments on drafts of this report, as did James L. Blum, former Deputy Director of CBO; Roy T. Meyers of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Robert Keith of the Congressional Research Service; and Philip Joyce of George Washington University.

Christian Spoor edited the study, and Christine Bogusz proofread it. Marion Curry typed the many drafts. Kathryn Quattrone prepared the study for publication, and Annette Kalicki prepared the electronic versions for CBO's Web site.
 

Dan L. Crippen
Director
March 2001
 
 

SUMMARY

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

• Attempts to Control Supplemental Spending
• Trends in Supplemental Spending in the 1970s
• Trends in Supplemental Spending in the 1980s

THE BUDGET ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 1990

CONSIDERATION OF SUPPLEMENTALS AND RESCISSIONS IN THE 1990s

• Rules Governing Supplemental Appropriations
• Number of Laws Enacted
• Budgetary Impact
• Requested Versus Enacted Amounts
• Changes in Purpose Since the 1970s and 1980s

DISTRIBUTION OF SUPPLEMENTALS AND RESCISSIONS IN THE 1990s

• Discretionary Spending
• Mandatory Spending

USE OF THE EMERGENCY DESIGNATION

OFFSETTING RESCISSIONS IN THE 1990s

• First-Year Outlays
• Five-Year Outlays

APPENDIX - Supplemental Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2000
 

TABLES
S-1.	Supplemental Appropriations Net of Rescissions, 1990-1999
1.	Laws in the 1990s That Provided Supplemental Appropriations or Rescissions
2.	Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions Requested by the President Versus Those Enacted, 1990-1999
3.	Discretionary Supplemental Spending in the 1990s
4.	Discretionary Rescissions in the 1990s
5.	Discretionary Supplemental Spending in the 1990s Net of Rescissions
6.	Mandatory Supplemental Spending in the 1990s
7.	Discretionary Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions in the 1990s, by Budget Authority and Outlays
8.	Five-Year Outlays from Selected Discretionary Supplemental Appropriation Laws and Offsetting Rescissions Since 1992
A-1.	Supplemental Appropriations Net of Rescissions, 1990-2000
A-2.	Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions in Fiscal Year 2000
A-3.	Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions Requested by the President Versus Those Enacted, 1990-2000
FIGURES
S-1.	Supplemental Spending Gross and Net of Rescissions, 1970-2000
S-2.	Supplemental Spending by Category, 1990-2000
1.	Supplemental Spending Gross and Net of Rescissions, 1970-2000
2.	Discretionary Supplemental Spending and Rescissions Requested by the President Versus Those Enacted, 1990-2000
3.	Discretionary Supplemental Spending, by Category, 1981-2000
4.	Discretionary Supplemental Spending for Domestic Emergencies, 1976-2000
5.	Total and Nonemergency Supplemental Spending Net of Offsetting Rescissions, 1990-2000

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