REPORT ON UNAUTHORIZED APPROPRIATIONS AND EXPIRING

118 Pages·2003·1.62 MB·English

By Spending Committee
REPORT ON UNAUTHORIZED APPROPRIATIONS
AND EXPIRING AUTHORIZATIONS
JANUARY 15, 1992
The Congress of the United States
Congressional Budget Office

OVERVIEW
The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985
(Public Law 99-177) requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
to report to the Congress on unauthorized appropriations and
expiring authorizations. Section 221(b) of the act added this
requirement to section 202(f) of the Congressional Budget and
Impoundment Control Act of 1974, as amended:
(3) On or before January 15 of each year,
the Director, after consultation with the
appropriate committees of the House and the
Senate, shall submit to the Congress a
report listing (A) all programs and
activities funded during the fiscal year
ending September 30 of that calendar year
for which authorizations for appropriations
have not been enacted for that fiscal year,
and (B) all programs and activities for
which no authorizations for appropriations
have been enacted for the fiscal year
beginning October 1 of that calendar year.
The conference report on the Balanced Budget Act states that
the purpose of the requirement is "to help Congress use the early
months of the year to adopt authorizing legislation that must be in
place before the thirteen regular appropriation bills can be
considered."
The substance of this report consists of two appendixes.
Appendix A summarizes programs that have received fiscal year 1992
appropriations, but that lack specific authorizations of
appropriations for that year. Appendix B lists programs whose
specific authorizations of appropriations will expire by the end of
fiscal year 1992. The listings include data on all public laws
enacted during the First Session of the 102nd Congress. The
information on authorizations is contained in CBO's Legislative
Classification System (LCS). The information on amounts
appropriated for fiscal year 1992 is from CBO's estimates of the
current level of federal spending.

2 EXPIRING LEGISLATION January 15, 1992
PROGRAMS FUNDED IN FISCAL YEAR 1992
WITHOUT AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS
Appendix A summarizes programs and activities that have received
fiscal year 1992 appropriations, but that lack authorizations of
appropriations for that year.
The Congress at one time provided explicit authorizations of
appropriations for the programs listed, but the authorizations
expired and have not been renewed. Appendix A shows the last
funding level authorized for each of these programs.
Where the applicable fiscal year 1992 appropriation bills or
the legislative history provided explicit funding levels for
programs listed in Appendix A, the amounts are shown. When no
explicit amounts were provided (as when a small program was funded
at an unidentified level in a large appropriation account), the
Appendix notes that no amounts are available, and no dollar figures
are shown.
Two characteristics of the information in Appendix A should be
noted. First, even if the fiscal year 1992 appropriation for a
program or activity was not authorized, the agency normally may
obligate and spend the funds. Second, Appendix A may not list every
program and activity funded In fiscal year 1992 without an
authorization. CBO does not track expiring authorizations that do
not explicitly authorize appropriations, such as the Department of
Veterans Affairs' authority to provide respite care. CBO also does
not track unauthorized earmarks--that is, set asides--in
appropriation acts.
year 1992 for programs and activities without authorizations by
House and Senate authorizing committees, respectively. Table 3
summarizes the funding levels for programs that once had explicit
authorizations of appropriations, listing the amounts by public law.
Approximately $5.1 billion of the $37.4 billion in fiscal year
1992 appropriations summarized in Appendix A is for programs whose
most recent authorizations of appropriations expired at the end of
fiscal year 1991. The largest of these programs are the Alcohol,
Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration programs ($2.1
billion). Other programs in this category include Health and Human
Services programs for the elderly ($0.98 billion) and activities of
the Maritime Administration ($0.58 billion).

January 15, 1992 INTRODUCTION 3
The other $32.3 billion in unauthorized fiscal year 1992
appropriations is for programs whose authorizations expired before
the first session of the 102nd Congress recessed. In this category,
unauthorized funds for international security and development and
foreign assistance programs totaled $9.8 billion. The 99th Congress
authorized funding for those programs through fiscal year 1987.
Over $8.1 billion is for the Department of Justice. The annual
authorization for most of the department's programs has not been
enacted since 1979.
Nearly $6.5 billion of the unauthorized funds is for civilian
Department of Energy (DOE) programs. Annual authorizations for
these programs are required by law, but funding for most of them was
last authorized, through fiscal year 1984, by the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1981. the Renewable Energy and Energy
Efficiency Competitiveness Act of 1989 reauthorized DOE renewable
energy programs for fiscal years 1991 through 1993.

4 EXPIRING LEGISLATION January 15. 1992
TABLE 1. FISCAL TEAR 1992 APPROPRIATIONS THAT LACK SPECIFIC
AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS, BY HOUSE AUTHORIZING
COMMITTEE (In thousands of dollars)
House Number Appropriation
Committee of Laws Amounts a/
Agriculture 4 48,313
Armed Services 1 235,300
Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs 4 595,450
Education and Labor 6 1,062,132
Energy and Commerce 25 11,515,262
Foreign Affairs 9 11,223,869
House Administration 1 18,808
Interior and Insular Affairs 3 776,886
Judiciary 5 9,068,217
Merchant Marine and Fisheries 10 1,211,248
Post Office and Civil Service 1 1,882
Public Works and Transportation 6 1,137,883
Science, Space, and Technology 8 6,040,391
Ways and Means _2 15.000
Total 71 b/ 37,353,800 b/
SOURCE: Congressional Budget Office.
a. Amounts specified in statute or legislative history only.
b. Authorizations under the jurisdiction of more than one
committee are counted only once in the total.