# United States Code/Title 2/Chapter 17A

From the Cornell Law School U.S. Code Collection

### § 621. Congressional declaration of purpose

The Congress declares that it is essential—
    (1) to assure effective congressional control over the budgetary process;
    (2) to provide for the congressional determination each year of the appropriate level of Federal revenues and expenditures;
    (3) to provide a system of impoundment control;
    (4) to establish national budget priorities; and
    (5) to provide for the furnishing of information by the executive branch in a manner that will assist the Congress in discharging its duties.

### § 622. Definitions

For purposes of this Act—
    (1) The terms “budget outlays” and “outlays” mean, with respect to any fiscal year, expenditures and net lending of funds under budget authority during such year.
    (2) Budget authority and new budget authority.—
       (A) In general.— The term “budget authority” means the authority provided by Federal law to incur financial obligations, as follows:
          (i) provisions of law that make funds available for obligation and expenditure (other than borrowing authority), including the authority to obligate and expend the proceeds of offsetting receipts and collections;
          (ii) borrowing authority, which means authority granted to a Federal entity to borrow and obligate and expend the borrowed funds, including through the issuance of promissory notes or other monetary credits;
          (iii) contract authority, which means the making of funds available for obligation but not for expenditure; and
          (iv) offsetting receipts and collections as negative budget authority, and the reduction thereof as positive budget authority.
       (B) Limitations on budget authority.— With respect to the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, the Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund, the Unemployment Trust Fund, and the railroad retirement account, any amount that is precluded from obligation in a fiscal year by a provision of law (such as a limitation or a benefit formula) shall not be budget authority in that year.
       (C) New budget authority.— The term “new budget authority” means, with respect to a fiscal year—
          (i) budget authority that first becomes available for obligation in that year, including budget authority that becomes available in that year s [1] a result of a reappropriation; or
          (ii) a change in any account in the availability of unobligated balances of budget authority carried over from a prior year, resulting from a provision of law first effective in that year;
       and includes a change in the estimated level of new budget authority provided in indefinite amounts by existing law.
    (3) The term “tax expenditures” means those revenue losses attributable to provisions of the Federal tax laws which allow a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction from gross income or which provide a special credit, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability; and the term “tax expenditures budget” means an enumeration of such tax expenditures.
    (4) The term “concurrent resolution on the budget” means—
       (A) a concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for a fiscal year as provided in section 632 of this title; and
       (B) any other concurrent resolution revising the congressional budget for the United States Government for a fiscal year as described in section 635 of this title.
    (5) The term “appropriation Act” means an Act referred to in section 105 of title 1.
    (6) The term “deficit” means, with respect to a fiscal year, the amount by which outlays exceeds [2] receipts during that year.
    (7) The term “surplus” means, with respect to a fiscal year, the amount by which receipts exceeds [2] outlays during that year.
    (8) The term “government-sponsored enterprise” means a corporate entity created by a law of the United States that—
       (A)
          (i) has a Federal charter authorized by law;
          (ii) is privately owned, as evidenced by capital stock owned by private entities or individuals;
          (iii) is under the direction of a board of directors, a majority of which is elected by private owners;
          (iv) is a financial institution with power to—
             (I) make loans or loan guarantees for limited purposes such as to provide credit for specific borrowers or one sector; and
             (II) raise funds by borrowing (which does not carry the full faith and credit of the Federal Government) or to guarantee the debt of others in unlimited amounts; and
       (B)
          (i) does not exercise powers that are reserved to the Government as sovereign (such as the power to tax or to regulate interstate commerce);
          (ii) does not have the power to commit the Government financially (but it may be a recipient of a loan guarantee commitment made by the Government); and
          (iii) has employees whose salaries and expenses are paid by the enterprise and are not Federal employees subject to title 5.
    (9) The term “entitlement authority” means—
       (A) the authority to make payments (including loans and grants), the budget authority for which is not provided for in advance by appropriation Acts, to any person or government if, under the provisions of the law containing that authority, the United States is obligated to make such payments to persons or governments who meet the requirements established by that law; and
       (B) the food stamp program.
    (10) The term “credit authority” means authority to incur direct loan obligations or to incur primary loan guarantee commitments.

### § 623. Continuing study of additional budget reform proposals

(a) The Committees on the Budget of the House of Representatives and the Senate shall study on a continuing basis proposals designed to improve and facilitate methods of congressional budgetmaking. The proposals to be studied shall include, but are not limited to, proposals for—
    (1) improving the information base required for determining the effectiveness of new programs by such means as pilot testing survey research, and other experimental and analytical techniques;
    (2) improving analytical and systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of existing programs;
    (3) establishing maximum and minimum time limitations for program authorization; and
    (4) developing techniques of human resource accounting and other means of providing noneconomic as well as economic evaluation measures.
(b) The Committee on the Budget of each House shall, from time to time, report to its House the results of the study carried on by it under subsection (a) of this section, together with its recommendations.
(c) Nothing in this section shall preclude studies to improve the budgetary process by any other committee of the House of Representatives or the Senate or any joint committee of the Congress.
* Subchapter I—CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET PROCESS
* Subchapter II—FISCAL PROCEDURES
* Subchapter III—CREDIT REFORM
* Subchapter IV—BUDGET AGREEMENT ENFORCEMENT PROVISIONS