Unit 4: Legislation and Policy

1. Unit 4:Legislation and Policy Appropriating Federal Money

2. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Introduction to Appropriating Federal Money Notes: • Aside from taxing and spending, Congress has the power of appropriation, approval of government spending. • This power is found in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, and basically means no branch of government can spend federal money unless Congress approves.

3. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Process for Appropriating Federal Funds Notes: • Step 1: An authorization bill must be passed that sets up a federal program and designates the amount of money that will be spent on that program. • The authorization bill will also specify which department must carry out the program. • EX: Department of Housing and Public Development (H.U.D.)

4. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Process for Appropriating Federal Funds (cont’d.) Notes: • Step 2: An appropriations bill is created when the department requests the money which was set aside for that specific federal program. • That request is included in the president’s proposed annual budget. • Congress decides if the department actually needs the amount requested to carry out their job.

5. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Process for Appropriating Federal Funds (cont’d.) Notes: • Step 3: The appropriations bills are assigned to House and Senate Appropriations Committees and their subcommittees to study the requests. • Department heads must testify in these committee hearings about their budgets so that law-makers can get more familiar with the government department and their programs—so they can make a better budget determination.

6. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Uncontrollable Expenditures Notes: • There are some budgetary areas that the House and Senate Appropriations Committees don’t have a say in. • These are called uncontrollable expenditures because the government has already committed to spend the money for these things in previous bills and laws.

7. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Uncontrollable Expenditures (cont’d.) Notes: • Some uncontrollable expenditures include: • Non-discretionary Spending • Earmarks

8. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Uncontrollable Expenditures (cont’d.) Notes: • Non-discretionary Spending: Programs that have built-in cost of living increases and require more money because the government has already committed to spend federal money on . • EX: Entitlements: government programs that continue from one year to the next—such as Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Welfare, etc.

9. Appropriating Federal Money Main Idea: Uncontrollable Expenditures (cont’d.) Notes: 2. Earmarks: are portions of a bill that allocate (set aside) a sum of federal money for a specific program or project.