Skip Navigation

This report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) satisfies the requirements of section 221(b) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. The purpose of the report is to help the Congress adopt authorizing legislation that should be in place before it considers the 13 regular appropriation bills for fiscal year 1998 (which begins October 1,1997).

Ellen Hays of CBO's Special Studies Division prepared this report under the supervision of Arlene Holen and Marvin Phaup. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of analysts in CBO's Budget Analysis Division and the budget offices of various agencies, as well as numerous committee staff members.

Christian Spoor edited the report, and L. Rae Roy prepared it for publication. Questions about the contents should be directed to Ellen Hays.

June E. O'Neill
Director
January 1997
 
 

The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to report to the Congress each year on unauthorized appropriations and expiring authorizations. Section 221(b) of that act added the following requirement to section 202(f) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, as amended:

(3) On or before January 15 of each year, the Director, after consultation with the appropriate committees of the House and the Senate, shall submit to the Congress a report listing (A) all programs and activities funded during the fiscal year ending September 30 of that calendar year for which authorizations for appropriations have not been enacted for that fiscal year, and (B) all programs and activities for which no authorizations for appropriations have been enacted for the fiscal year beginning October 1 of that calendar year.

The conference report on the Balanced Budget Act states that the purpose of the requirement is "to help Congress use the early months of the year to adopt authorizing legislation that must be in place before the thirteen regular appropriation bills can be considered."

The substance of this report consists of two appendixes. Appendix A lists unauthorized appropriations: programs that have received an appropriation for fiscal year 1997 although their authorization has expired. Appendix B lists programs whose authorization will expire at the end of fiscal year 1997. The information is drawn from CBO's Legislative Classification System, a database reflecting all public laws enacted that have any effect on authorizations of appropriations--up to and including all laws enacted during the second session of the 104th Congress.

Historically, the rules of the House provide a point of order against any appropriation that is not authorized. During consideration of a bill in the House, unauthorized appropriations are sometimes dropped from the bill. However, the House Committee on Rules frequently grants waivers for unauthorized appropriations that are contained in a conference agreement. The CBO is unaware of any case which appropriations have not been provided for a program solely because its authorization has expired.

The 104th Congress highlighted the issue of unauthorized appropriations when it adopted rules at the beginning of its first session in January 1995. Both House and Senate rules required that the subcommittees of the Committee on Appropriations list programs funded in a bill that lack an authorization in their respective committee reports. The information in the committee reports differs somewhat from the information shown in this report.

This report covers programs that at one time had an explicit authorization that either has expired or will expire. Unlike the lists shown in the Appropriations Committee reports, CBO's report does not include programs that the Congress has never authorized. For example, some Treasury Department programs have never received explicit authorizations of appropriations. (Appropriations are provided for Treasury programs nonetheless because the authority to obligate and spend funds is considered "organic"--inherent in the legislation or executive action that originally empowered a particular entity to perform a particular function.)

Many laws establish programs with authorizations of appropriations that do not expire, whether they be for specific annual dollar amounts or for "such sums as are necessary." Both the Appropriations Committee reports and this CBO report exclude programs with that type of authorization because its effect is permanent.

For all appropriated programs that at one time had an explicit authorization that has expired or will expire, the appendixes show the number and name of the public law containing the last authorization, the last year the authorization was in effect, and the amount authorized in that year. If the authorization provided for "such sums as are necessary," the report shows the amount authorized as "indefinite."

This document is available in its entirety in PDF.