Committees

Congresman Mario Diaz-Balart currently serves on the House Committee on Appropriations and three of its subcommittees.

Congress's primary responsibility for federal spending deals with discretionary allocations. The House - as well as the Senate -  Appropriations Committees write the legislation that allocates federal funds to numerous government agencies, departments,and organizations on an annual basis. Appropriations are limited to the levels set by the Budget Resolution, drafted by the House Budget Committee.

The committee consists of 12 subcommittee that are tasked with drafting legislation to allocate funds to government agencies within their jurisdiction. Each subcommittee has a Chair and Vice-Chair, and are responsible for reviewing the President's budget request, hearing testimony from government officials, and drafting the spending plans for the coming fiscal year. The subcommittees work is passed on to the full House Appropriations Committee, which may choose to modify the bills and then forward them to the full House for consideration.

JURISDICTION OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Rule X of the Rules of the House vests in the Committee on Appropriations broad responsibility over the Federal budget. Specifically the Rule defines the Committee's jurisdiction, as follows: "Rule X clause (b). Committee on Appropriations. (1) Appropriation of the revenue for the support of the Government. (2) Rescissions of appropriations contained in appropriations Acts. (3) Transfers of unexpected balances. (4) Bills and joint resolutions reported by other committees that provide new entitlement authority as defined in section 3(9) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and referred to the committee under clause 4(a)(2)."