Introduction to the Federal Budget Process Matt Hourihan

Introduction to the Federal Budget Process Matt Hourihan April 13, 2015 for the Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering Workshop AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program http: //www. aaas. org/program/rd-budget-and-policy-program

The Federal Budget is Kind Of a Big Deal l “Politics is who gets what, when, and how. ” - Harold Lasswell l “Budgeting is about values, and it’s about choices. ” – Rep. Rosa De. Lauro l Every dollar in the budget has its claimants! l Negotiation between competing interests (and their proxies) in a decentralized system l Major impact for R&D and innovation: most basic research, and most university research, is federally funded

A Typical Federal Budget Process: Three Years, Four Phases Phase 4: Execute the fiscal year’s budget (not shown) Arranged by fiscal year (October to September)

The Federal Budget Cycle l Phase 1: Internal agency discussions, planning, and review l OMB is present throughout l Early spring: guidance memo l Science & Tech: Joint guidance memo from OMB / OSTP (midsummer) l Agencies deliver budget justifications to OMB (early fall)

The Federal Budget Cycle l Phase 2: OMB performs multi-stage review, responds to agencies (“passbacks”) l Agencies and agency heads can and do negotiate l Budget proposals are finalized in January l President presents the proposed budget to Congress early February

The Federal Budget Cycle l Phase 3: Congress receives and reacts to President’s budget, holds hearings l IN THEORY: Approves budget resolution (simple majority) l Approps committees write/approve 12 appropriations bills l “President proposes, Congress disposes”

The Budget Resolution l Overall spending framework l Discretionary spending figure is divvied up by appropriations committees l Budget resolution is a political document l (which is why they can’t seem to pass one? ) l Reconciliation instructions? l 302(b) allocations

The Federal Budget Cycle l Gov’t is working on 3 budgets at any given time. Right now: l FY 15 in progress l FY 16: Budget resolutions; approps to follow l FY 17: Agencies ramping up