The Conferees reconcile the differences between the two versions and issue a conference report which must then be approved by each house. This approval constitutes passage of the appropriation by the Congress. The bill is then sent to the President for signature.
When an appropriation bill is not passed by the Congress by the beginning of the fiscal year, all outstanding appropriation bills may be combined into one "Continuing Resolution" which carries a new bill number, H.J. Res. The new bill incorporates the provisions of the individual appropriation bills.
Enactment Issues pertaining to two common issues that agency faces with respect to the enactment process: continuing resolutions and new starts.
If Congress is unable to pass one or more appropriations acts by the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1), it will usually provide Continuing Resolution Authority (CRA) to prevent agencies whose appropriations have not been passed from shutting down. The CRA provides "stopgap" funding to keep affected agencies operating for a specified period of time. This period, spelled out in the Continuing Resolution, may range from a few days to a few weeks or months, depending on when Congress anticipates that it can pass the final appropriations act(s).
A Continuing Resolution Act is a law, signed by the President, providing Continuing Resolution Authority. Unlike an appropriations act, a Continuing Resolution Act does not specify dollar amounts of budget authority. Rather, it permits activities to operate at "the current rate of operations," which is usually based on one of the following levels:
Other spending level limits may be specified in the Continuing Resolution Act, depending on the status of the appropriations bills and whether or not a program was "zeroed-out" (that is, all program funding deleted) during the committee mark-ups.
The interpretation of a "current rate of operations" is left to the individual agencies, but clearly is not intended to permit obligation of an entire year's worth of funding during the period covered by the CRA.
DoD Example
By law, many of DoD's acquisition efforts must be authorized before funds can be spent. Therefore, Congress is concerned about DoD's initiation of "new starts" funded by RDT&E and Procurement appropriations. According to the DoD Financial Management Regulation 7000.14-R, Volume 3, Chapter 6, Paragraph 060401E, a "new start" is defined as any program, subprogram, modification, project, or subproject not previously justified by DoD and funded by Congress through the normal budget process.
The House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees must either approve or be notified of all new starts before funds can be obligated, except for certain safety modifications. Written approval from the congressional committees prior to execution of funds ("prior approval") is required when a new start establishes: 1. A new procurement line item, program, subprogram, or modification costing $20 million or more in the first three years, 2. A new RDT&E program element, project, or subproject costing $10 million or more in the first three years.
Congress must be given letter notification of new starts that do not meet the criteria for prior approval. Funds for such letter notification new starts may not be released for execution until at least 31 days after the notification is received by the congressional committees.
New safety modifications with a total cost of less than $20 million are excepted from the normal rules pertaining to Congressional prior approval and notification. Due to the urgency of such safety modifications, they require only letter notification to Congress. Funds may be spent on these projects immediately once the notification letter has been delivered to the appropriate Congressional committees.
With the exception of certain urgent safety modifications, the House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees must either approve or be notified of all new starts before funds can be obligated. Certain new starts that are urgent safety modifications may obligate funds before providing letter notification to or obtaining prior approval from the Congressional committees as an exception to normal rules.
Congress must be given letter notification of new starts that do not meet the criteria for prior approval. Funds for such new starts are not released until at least 30 days after notification is received.
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