Federal Budget

The United States' federal budget is a document created by the President, federal departments and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The process of drafting a budget is layed out in-game, but this Wikipedia page is to make it easier to understand.

Federal Budget of the United States
The federal budget is first drafted by the President as a 'wishlist' of what the current administration for the year. This is then sent to Congress, where the House Appropriations Committee drafts its own budget to set a budget resolution. This document will be sent by each Congressional Committee with how much money each department needs, then calculating how much money the government should collect and how much each department should spend. This process also allows for the creation and funding of new programs.

The amendment process begins where ranking members of each committee can propose amendments to the resolution, proposing new amounts according to their affiliation. This process takes place in both chambers of Congress. If both chambers draft different resolutions, a Conference report is formed by members of both Houses to average out their differences.

The budget resolution is not a law and thus does not have to be approved by the president. It is a guideline that limits the kinds of laws that Congress can create. For instance, the budget resolution would prohibit the creation of any legislation that decreases tax revenues to a point below the limit authorized by the budget resolution, or it could prohibit legislation that would increase expenditure above the limit authorized.

Once the budget resolution process ends, the appropriations process begins. Each sub-committee of the Appropriation's committee creates an appropriation bill for a particular category of government spending, such as the military or education or health care. Funding in the appropriation bills cannot exceed the budget limit authorized by the budget resolution. Each appropriation bill goes through an amendment process and then a vote is called to pass the appropriation bill. Any differences between the House bill and Senate bill are averaged out in a conference report. The appropriation bill is then signed into law by the president. (In real life the president could veto an appropriation bill, but in this game, there is currently no procedure to deal with the presidential veto of an appropriation bill, so the president automatically approves the bill.)

Appropriations Bills Timeline

 * Week 21: Defense
 * Week 22: Agriculture, Rural Development, and FDA
 * Week 23: Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
 * Week 24: Energy and Water Development
 * Week 25: Financial Services and General Government
 * Week 26: Homeland Security
 * Week 27: Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
 * Week 28: Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
 * Week 29: Legislative Branch
 * Week 30: Veterans Affairs, Military Construction, and Related Agencies
 * Week 31: State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
 * Week 32: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Mandatory Expenditure
Mandatory expenditure refers to any program that, by law, must be funded. The amount that these programs are funded is determined by law in the form of eligibility rates and benefit amounts. Mandatory expenditures include things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps.

Discretionary Expenditure
Discretionary expenditure refers to any program that can be funded at the 'discretion' of congress. Congress can fund such programs as much or as little as desired. Discretionary expenditures include things like the military and NASA.

Federal Government Shutdowns
In real-life, the failure of the U.S. Congress to enact a budget would result in the shutdown of the federal government. During times such as these, non-essential federal operations like National Parks, the Smithsonian, and any non-essential federal program close until funding can be replaced with a new federal budget. This is a feature that will be added in the future.