House Action
After the hearings, the House subcommittee meets and "marks up" the President's Budget with its own recommendations and drafts the appropriations bill and report. At this point, the bill receives a number (H.R.) which remains the bill number through all further stages leading to its enactment. The full committee then meets to review the subcommittee action, revise or adopt the bill and report, and order the bill reported to the House. The bill goes to the House floor, where it is passed with or without amendments. The House passed version of the bill is referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Impact Statements
The basic rule on impact statements is that agencies are pledged to support the Budget as submitted by the President unless he/she or OMB approves its amendment. Concurrence with an appropriation change made by the House, either upward or downward, or a language change, is in effect agreeing to an amended budget, and needs OMB review and clearance.
The paramount factor in preparing impact statements is to maintain the integrity of the policies and priorities stated in the President's Budget, and the Economic and State of the Union messages. This leads to two general guidelines which OMB usually insists on: support the elimination of any increases made by the House which would call for expenditure in excess of amounts requested; and justify the need for restoration of the full amount requested for important Administration initiatives.
Agencies are also expected to address any reduction which would impair programs essential to the public health and safety. The issue in these cases many times is whether a reduction did in fact compromise the President's policies and priorities, or actually impair an essential program. For example, the House may have no quarrel with a program, but feels it could be carried out for less money, or the passage of time or other factors make it unlikely that the full amount requested can be spent in the budget year.
To be taken into account are such matters as the relative priority of reductions compared with items allowed, whether programs are eliminated entirely or merely reduced in scope, whether it might be feasible to stretch out the time schedule for attaining objectives, and whether any arguments can be advanced for getting the Senate to take on the responsibility of changing the House position.
Within 48 hours of House full committee action, operating units submit to agency a breakout of the totals included in the House report by activity and subactivity as shown on the Summary of Resource Requirements (salmon sheet). The timely submission of this information will be facilitated if the operating unit has developed an internal financial plan. Each subactivity includes figures for budget authority for the President’s Budget and House allowance.
Summary statements accompany the tabular material. It is important to be specific as to what will happen to the program outputs and objectives if the House allowance is enacted. Statements should include narrative on the following.
Senate Action
Although the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee holds hearings on the budget request prior to the House report and action, it rarely reports or takes action until after the House has held its “mark-up” and reported on the bill to the floor of the House.
The Senate subcommittee marks up and drafts its revisions to the House bill and prepares its own report. As in the House, the full committee then reviews the subcommittee action and adopts or revises the bill and report and orders the bill reported to the Senate. The Senate version of the bill as reported is voted on by the Senate and passed with or without amendments. Impact statements, as discussed in the previous section, will be due to the Office of Budget within 48 hours of Senate full committee action.
Appeals to the Conference Committee
Once both houses have passed their versions of the bill, House and Senate “managers” or conferees are appointed by the presiding officers of both houses. If the House and Senate allowances for an item are different, the item is called "conferenceable." If the two allowances are the same, although they may be different from the President's Budget request, the item is "non-conference able." The same guidance on House and Senate impact statements applies to conference action except that tabular information includes columns for "Conference Action." Impact statements for House and Senate allowances will be forwarded to congressional clerks for consideration.
Apple is the process by which agency appeals proposed Congressional changes ("marks") to the President's Budget request.
As the authorization and appropriations committees mark up the President's Budget request, agency tracks the mark-up and makes appeals in an attempt to minimize the impact of the marks. In addition to appealing funding marks, agency may also appeal marks affecting personnel levels, procurement quantities, and legislative language that may adversely affect the department or the efficient execution of a program.
Operation units are asked to provide candidate programs for appeal. While agency consolidates and coordinates all appeal materials, operation units must ensure that materials submitted in support of appeal candidates are accurate and remain up-to-date. Agency appeals are transmitted under cover of a letter prepared by budget office and signed by the Head of agency. Appeals are addressed to the chair of the next committee to take action on the budget request, or in the case of appeals to conferees, to the chairs of both the House and Senate committees.
Once a congressional committee has marked the budget, agency can appeal to the next committee in that process (authorization or appropriation) considering the budget. The House of Representatives traditionally marks fiscal bills first, so agency appeals generally only go to the Senate committees and the conferences. Since the authorization and appropriations processes are proceeding simultaneously, by agreement with Congress the marks in each process are considered and appealed separately (independently) from each other.
In the authorization process, the House committees usually make the initial mark. Agency may appeal the House mark to the Senate committees. Once the Senate committees has marked the budget request, agency may appeal to the Authorization Conference. In the appropriations process, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) makes the initial mark, which agency may appeal to the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC). Once the SAC has marked, agency may appeal to the Appropriations Conference.
If a mark affects the funding level of a program, agency may appeal for the amount closest to the President's Budget within the last two congressional marks (or for the President's Budget amount if only one mark exists).
Appropriations process marks and appeals example.
The President's budget request included $100 million for Program X. The HAC marks Program X at $83 million. agency appeals to the SAC for $100 million. The SAC marks Program X at $110 million after considering agency appeal. One of the marks (SAC's) is more than the President's Budget request, so agency should appeal to the amount in the President's Budget request. agency appeals to the Appropriations Conference for $100 million. The Appropriations Conference marks Program X at $95 million after considering agency’s appeal.