Advanced Federal Budget Process

8:30 - 4:00 pm both days
(Networking lunch 12 noon both days)

Day One

The Budget and the Economy

• How the federal deficit was ended - and returned

• Implications for the politics of budgeting

Federal Budget Phases and Time Frames

• Presidential and agency formulation

• Congressional action on the executive budget

• Budget execution and control

• Review and audit stage

Congressional Budgeting Today

• The framework and basic concepts of budgetary accounting

• The congressional budget process, key players and basic roles and relationships

• The two federal budget processes: discretionary and mandatory spending

• Budget authority versus budget outlays

STAGE I: The Congressional Budget Resolution and Reconciliation Process

• The budget resolution as a legislative framework

• How to interpret the budget aggregates, functional allocations contained in the budget resolution

• Enforcing the budget framework through reconciliation

• Why the budget resolution and budget enforcement rules no longer work

• PAYGO

STAGE II: Authorizations

• Key features and different types of authorization bills

• The relationship of authorization and appropriations legislation and how differences between the two are reconciled

• The trend toward annual authorizations and how this impacts power relationships in Congress
  

Day Two

STAGE III: Appropriations

The traditional role of the House initiating appropriations bills; the rules and structure in place to move this "must pass" legislation through committee and floor consideration

• Changes in the appropriations process including Senate initiation of appropriations bills, and conflict in the appropriating process

• How the various parts of an appropriations bill relate to one another

• How to interpret the nuances of legislative language (expects versus directs, may versus shall, etc.) in appropriations bills and reports

• Track Senate amendments to House-passed appropriations bills

• How the Senate's lack of formal rules and structure impacts the path of appropriations bills through the Senate; the use of unanimous consent

STAGE IV: Final Actions on Appropriations

• How differences between House and Senate legislation are reconciled

• How to interpret the conference report and to determine the status of your program and final dollar amounts agreed to by the conferees

STAGE V: The Budget Execution Process

• The flow of monies following the passage of appropriations including apportionment, allotments, obligations, and outlays by executive agencies

• Tracking and controlling the budget

• Accounting for budget execution

• Executing budgets within the law

Transparency and Accountability in the Budget Process

• Policy proposals and fiscal realities

• OMB's tools for assessing program performance

• Principles and issues in performance measurement

The Budget: Short- and Long-Term Prospects