The Appropriations Process

“No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”

-Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution of the United States

The term "appropriations" refers to public funds set aside for a specific purpose. The appropriation cycle takes place every year to determine funding levels for the programs and activities of the United States Government. Programs include humanitarian assistance, bi-lateral aid (direct financial assistance provided to another country), and contributions to United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Funding and Darfur

Appropriation Vehicles and Processes

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Funding to Protect Civilians in Darfur

Peacekeeping Budget

Adequate funding from the United States is necessary to ensure the success of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur. The United States is responsible for approximately 27% of the budget for the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as assessed by the United Nations. This money is provided by the United States through the Contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA) account.

However, if not increased, U.S. debt to UN Peacekeeping is estimated to be over $2 billion in fiscal year 2009. This includes $334 million that is still owed for the peacekeeping mission in Darfur. This lack of funding often leads to underequipped, underpaid, and understaffed peacekeeping missions and severely hampers the ability of peacekeepers to do what they are meant to: keep the peace and maintain a lifeline to the world’s most at-risk populations.

Additional Funding Needs

There are further opportunities for the United States to contribute the funding necessary to:

Increase the capacity of the African Union troops participating in the hybrid mission

Help train the formed police units that will be operating in Darfur

Provide humanitarian assistance to the displaced populations

Support the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement

Increase capacity and effectiveness of sanctions through better enforcement

Support U.S. diplomatic efforts in the region

Learn about what Congress can do today to support funding.

Appropriations Vehicles

There are three types of legislative vehicles through which funds can be appropriated.

Budget: Used to allocate general funding for a fiscal year

Supplemental: Used to allocate funding for emergency, unexpected, extraordinary or additional needs that were not covered in the Budget

Continuing Resolution: Used to continue funding levels from one year to the next in the event that a Budget will not be passed, or to fill in a gap in funding if the Budget has not become law by the start of the fiscal year

Budget

The Budget, or regular appropriations bill, process begins in February and is responsible for appropriating funding for the upcoming fiscal year. Each fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.

Example: The 2009 fiscal year runs from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. In order to ensure that the budgetary appropriations bill has time to become law before October 1st, the cycle began in February of 2008.

Learn More About the Budgetary Process

Details on the Legislative Process for Passing the Budget

Administrative Ask: The process begins when the President submits his annual budget to Congress on or before the first Monday in February.

House Action on Legislation: The House, using the President's Budget as a starting point, evaluates funding priorities to create and pass a budget bill.

Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee Process: The process of creating a budget bill begins with the appropriations committee. The committee is responsible for the creation of 12 regular appropriations bills dealing with funding in a variety of categories. Each appropriations bill is created by the relevant appropriations subcommittee. In the case of funding for international peacekeeping missions, allocations are managed by the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs and introduced through the State/Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.

House floor consideration: Once the bill has been passed through the appropriations committee, it is considered on the House floor.

Senate Action: Typically, once the bill has passed through the House of Representatives, the Senate takes up consideration, making any amendments that they feel are necessary. However, in recent years the Senate has introduced their own original bill through the Senate Appropriations committee. In this instance, the Senate sets out their priorities in advance of receiving the House version.

Conference Process: Regardless of whether the Senate passes their own appropriations bill, or an amended version of the House bill, members from both chambers must come together in a conference committee to agree upon a single version. During this processes the committee hashes out differences between the bills and makes compromises to create a bill that both chambers can tolerate.

Final Bill from Congress: Once the conference committee has agreed to a version of the bill, it must then be passed on the floor of each chamber.

Administration Signs into Law: Once an identical bill has passed both the House and Senate, it is sent to the President. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the bill. If the President does not take action on the by the end of the 10 day period, it automatically becomes law.

Veto: A veto occurs when the President disagrees with a piece of legislation and sends it back to Congress without his/her signature.

Pocket Veto: A pocket veto occurs when Congress goes out of session during the 10 day period that the President has to sign the bill. In this case if the President has not signed the bill by the end of the 10 days, it does not become law.

Supplemental

Supplemental appropriations bills are considered on an as-needed basis and provide additional funding for specific activities. Typically, there is at least one supplemental appropriations bill every year.

To date, a large portion of the United States' obligation to the Darfur peacekeepers has been funded through supplemental bills. This makes supplemental bills just as important as the yearly budget.

The process for passing a supplemental is similar to that of the budget.

Pros and Cons: The Supplemental Versus the Budget

Although money for Darfur peacekeeping is needed regardless of the funding mechanism, there are some differences between receiving funding through the supplemental instead of the budget.

Supplemental Pro: The spending ceiling (total amount of money that can be allocated) in supplemental bills is not as restrictive as it is in the budget. This makes it easier to receive adequate funding in the supplemental because there are not as many direct trade-offs between competing interests.

Supplemental Con: The money for peacekeeping should come regularly in budget and not be left over for the supplemental bill to cover. It is important for the United States to regularly appropriate adequate funding for peacekeeping on a more standardized yearly basis through the budget.

Continuing Resolution

Regular appropriations bills expire at the end of the fiscal year. In order for funding to continue past October 1st, the budget bill for the next fiscal year must be law by that date.

In the event that the budget will not be enacted by the deadline, continuing appropriations have been used to maintain temporary funding until either the budget can be passed or until the next budget cycle. Continuing appropriations are typically authorized through a joint Congressional resolution, known as a continuing resolution or CR.

CRs essentially extend the funding levels established by the previous year's budget. However, typically there is room for minor modifications. In the case of Darfur, continuing resolutions have worked to increase funding on a temporary basis.

More Information

For more information on the appropriations process:

Download The Congressional Appropriations Process report from the Congressional Research Service.

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