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How Does the United States Federal Budget Work?

By Jeshica Patel posted 03-20-2017 01:41 PM

  

                Recently, there have been news stories, and articles regarding the upcoming federal budget, which has been a highly controversial issue. When I first saw the headline of Trump slashing the EPA budget by $2.6B, I was angry at first, but then mostly just disappointed because I didn’t fully understand how the budget process actually works. So, I did what any reasonable person would do, and tried to figure it out, at least the basics.

                There are about five steps that the budget goes through from start to finish, after which the President has power to veto or sign into law the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The first step involves agencies, such as the EPA, putting together a budget request, which comes from the federal agencies themselves. After reviewing and taking into consideration supporting documents, and agency proposals, the next step involves the President, submitting the budget request to Congress. Lucky for us, the Office of Budget Management helps with that, and even publishes budgets from as far back as 1996.[1] At this point I took a look at the President’s proposed budget for 2018, and of course the flood of emotions came back after reading the section where he proposes a 31% cut in the budget.[2] The President's budget submission is referred to the Budget Committees within Congress, as well as the Congressional Budget Office, which publishes an analysis of the proposed budget. While the House and Senate don’t have to pass a budget resolution, that is typically what happens, and after several markups and votes, the final budget is voted on. After this entire process the President is the one who ultimately signs the budget into law or vetoes it.

While this is the simplest way to explain the process, there are many nuisances that must be considered during this extremely important decision-making. Timing is always a key issue for the budget process, as complications are bound to arise when there are differing opinions on issues of money allocation. Typically, if the budget is not set by a certain time, the budget from the previous year is used. Ultimately, this issue is left to those in DC to figure out, but the effects of the yearly federal budget trickle down and hugely shape the way the government functions.

For more information:

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/federal-budget-process/

https://www.gpo.gov/help/index.html#about_budget_of_the_united_states_government.htm

[1] OMB, Budget of the United States, last visited Mar. 17, 2017 https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=BUDGET&browsePath=Fiscal+Year+2018&isCollapsed=false&leafLevelBrowse=false&isDocumentResults=true&ycord=101.

[2] OMB, America First A Budget to Make America Great Again, last visited Mar. 17, 2017 https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2018-BLUEPRINT/pdf/BUDGET-2018-BLUEPRINT.pdf.

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