The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and subsequent legislation set the rules under which Congress develops and passes a budget each year. Understanding those rules and how they affect the budget process is important for any analysis of federal spending and taxation. Also visit the Brookings Institution Budget page for more background information.
The complex process of putting together the annual federal budget begins 18 months before the start of the fiscal year when the Administration starts to formulate its plans for spending and taxes. After receiving the President’s budget in early February, the Congress must craft and enact 12 appropriation bills that define spending in time for the October 1 start of the fiscal year. The executive and congressional timetables for the budget process are available here. Read a description of the Congressional budget process, including a brief history, here.
Use this list of budget terms to understand the process.
Publications
Can Congress Use Budget Rules to Improve Tax Policy?: Budget rules worked in the 1990s but are unlikely to succeed today without enough visibility to embarrass Congress into behaving better.
Dynamic Analysis and Scoring: Many factors limit our ability to project the effects of public policy on the economy as a whole, but economists' general agreement about which policies have greater effects could help guide choices among policies.
The Role of the Congressional Budget Office: CBO plays an important role in policy analysis that should not be compromised by requiring it to provide dynamic policy analyses.
