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The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-177) requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to report to the Congress on unauthorized appropriations and expiring authorizations. Section 221(b) of the act added this 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 summarizes programs that have received fiscal year 1992 appropriations, but that lack specific authorizations of appropriations for that year. Appendix B lists programs whose specific authorizations or appropriations will expire by the end of fiscal year 1992. The listings include data on all public laws enacted during the First Session of the 102nd Congress. The information on authorizations is contained in CBO's Legislative Classification System (LCS). The information on amounts appropriated for fiscal year 1992 is from CBO's estimates of the current level of federal spending.
 

PROGRAMS FUNDED IN FISCAL YEAR 1992 WITHOUT AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS

Appendix A summarizes programs and activities that have received fiscal year 1992 appropriations, but that lack authorizations of appropriations for that year.

The Congress at one time provided explicit authorizations of appropriations for the programs listed, but the authorizations expired and have not been renewed. Appendix A shows the last funding level authorized for each of these programs.

Where the applicable fiscal year 1992 appropriation bills or the legislative history provided explicit funding levels for programs listed in Appendix A, the amounts are shown. When no explicit amounts were provided (as when a small program was funded at an unidentified level in a large appropriation account), the Appendix notes that no amounts are available, and no dollar figures are shown.

Two characteristics of the information in Appendix A should be noted. First, even if the fiscal year 1992 appropriation for a program or activity was not authorized, the agency normally may obligate and spend the funds. Second, Appendix A may not list every program and activity funded in fiscal year 1992 without an authorization. CBO does not track expiring authorizations that do not explicitly authorize appropriations, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs' authority to provide respite care. CBO also does not track unauthorized earmarks--that is, set asides--in appropriation acts.

Tables 1 and 2 summarize the amounts appropriated in fiscal year 1992 for programs and activities without authorizations by House and Senate authorizing committees, respectively. Table 3 summarizes the funding levels for programs that once had explicit authorizations of appropriations, listing the amounts by public law.

Approximately $5.1 billion of the $37.4 billion in fiscal year 1992 appropriations summarized in Appendix A is for programs whose most recent authorizations of appropriations expired at the end of fiscal year 1991. The largest of these programs are the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration programs ($2.1 billion). Other programs in this category include Health and Human Services programs for the elderly ($0.98 billion) and activities of the Maritime Administration ($0.58 billion).

The other $32.3 billion in unauthorized fiscal year 1992 appropriations is for programs whose authorizations expired before the first session of the 102nd Congress recessed. In this category, unauthorized funds for international security and development and foreign assistance programs totaled $9.8 billion. The 99th Congress authorized funding for those programs through fiscal year 1987. Over $8.1 billion is for the Department of Justice. The annual authorization for most of the department's programs has not been enacted since 1979.

Nearly $6.5 billion of the unauthorized funds is for civilian Department of Energy (DOE) programs. Annual authorizations for these programs are required by law, but funding for most of them was last authorized, through fiscal year 1984, by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981. The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Competitiveness Act of 1989 reauthorized DOE renewable energy programs for fiscal years 1991 through 1993.

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