United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

B-310950.2 

March 12, 2009 

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye 

Chairman 

Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Thad Cochran 

Vice Chairman 

Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate 

Subject: Updated Rescission Statistics, Fiscal Years 1974–2008

This responds to your letter of January 28, 2009, requesting that we transmit to 

Congress an updated package of our statistical data concerning rescissions proposed 

and enacted since the passage of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. In response 

to your letter, we have updated our statistics regarding proposed and enacted 

rescissions through fiscal year 2008. 

Under the Impoundment Control Act, whenever the President proposes discretionary 

budget authority for rescission, he must transmit a special message to Congress 

detailing the amounts, reasons for, and effect of the proposed rescission. 

Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, Pub. L. No. 93-344, title X, 

88 Stat. 297, 332 (July 12, 1974), codified at 2 U.S.C. §§ 682–688. Agencies may 

withhold from obligation budget authority proposed for rescission in a special 

message for up to 45 legislative days following submission of the special message. 

2 U.S.C. § 683(b). If Congress does not pass rescission legislation within this 45-day 

period, the budget authority must be released. Id. The Impoundment Control Act 

provides a mechanism through which Congress may fast-track a vote on a special 

message. 2 U.S.C. § 688. 

We present our statistics in the two enclosed sets of tables, Enclosures 1 and 2. 

Enclosure 1 shows by fiscal year from 1974 to the present: (a) the aggregate number 

and amounts of rescissions proposed by the President, (b) the aggregate number and 

amount of those proposals enacted by Congress, (c) the aggregate number and 

amount of rescissions initiated by Congress, and (d) the total number of rescissions 

enacted and the total amount of budget authority rescinded by Congress, with totals 

for each category. Enclosure 2 shows by fiscal year from 1974 to the present, by 
presidential administration, the aggregate number and amount of rescissions 

proposed and enacted. The tables also display the number and amount of 

congressional rescissions by administration with totals for each category. Both 

tables include all rescissions enacted through September 30, 2008. 

To compile our statistics, we used the same methodology as we have for earlier data.1

 

We analyze appropriations, supplemental appropriations, and other acts of Congress 

enacted in each fiscal year in order to identify rescissions, which are any legislative 

provisions that eliminate previously enacted and currently available budget authority. 

To ensure that we completely and accurately identify all rescissions, we consult with 

staff from the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, who are 

responsible for tracking rescissions. Our statistics differ somewhat from those of the 

committee staff, who utilize different criteria to identify certain enactments as 

rescissions. For example, if Congress “rescinds” funds from one account and in the 

next paragraph “appropriates” the same amount to a different account, we consider it 

reallocated budget authority, not a rescission. 

The statistics appear in the same format as earlier tables, although the current 

product includes adjustment for clerical and transcription errors contained in earlier 

reports. 

Gary L. Kepplinger 

General Counsel 

Enclosures – 3 

 

1

 We provide an abbreviated methodology in Enclosure 3. For an exhaustive review 

of the background and methodology of this project, see the scope and methodology 

of our original presentation of these statistics in B-246096.8, Apr. 30, 1992. 

Page 2 B-310950.2 





Enclosure 3 

OBJECTIVE, SCOPE, AND METHODOLOGY FOR

 RESCISSION STATISTICS

We prepared the lists in Enclosures 1 and 2 using the same methodology we have 

used since we first compiled tables in 1992. See B-246096.8, Apr. 30, 1992. To keep 

the Congress apprised of the amount and frequency of rescissions proposed and 

enacted, we compiled statistics regarding rescissions proposed by the executive 

branch and rescissions enacted by Congress for each fiscal year from fiscal year 1974 

to the present. We analyzed appropriations, supplemental appropriations, and other 

acts of Congress enacted in each fiscal year to identify rescissions. We used 

computer-based and manual research, supplemented by discussions with other 

sources such as staff of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations 

to ensure that we completely and accurately identify all rescissions. 

To identify rescissions, we search for the verb “rescind” and the word “rescission” in 

its various forms. However, sometimes Congress does not use these terms in the 

legislative language even though the action is a rescission. For example, an act may 

delete a sum previously appropriated by another act and insert or substitute a lesser 

sum, which in effect rescinds previously appropriated budget authority. In other 

cases, Congress has referred to actions rescinding budget authority as “reductions.” 

Congress may also use the phrase “shall revert to the Treasury” to achieve the 

reduction in appropriations which we count as a rescission if it eliminates previously 

enacted and currently available budget authority. Thus, our research also includes 

the terms “reduce,” “revert,” and “cancel” in their various forms. To identify 

presidential rescission proposals, and proposals that were enacted, we reviewed each 

special message submitted by the Presidents pursuant to the Impoundment Control 

Act of 1974, 2 U.S.C. § 683, through September 30, 2007, and matched our list of 

rescissions against our list of rescission proposals submitted to Congress by the 

President pursuant to the Impoundment Control Act.1

 We classified those rescissions 

that were not related to presidential proposals as congressionally initiated 

rescissions. 

 

1

 We counted the Presidents’ proposed rescissions as proposals enacted by Congress 

whenever the Congress approved those proposals, that is, without regard to the 

45-day period applicable to rescissions contained in the Impoundment Control Act. 

2 U.S.C. § 683(b). Hypothetically, if the President proposed a rescission in February 

2008, the 45-day period would typically run until April 2008. Nonetheless, we would 

consider that rescission to be one proposed by the President and enacted or 

approved by Congress, even if Congress did not approve the proposed rescission until 

later in 2008. 

Page 1 of 3 B-310950.2
Enclosure 3 

Factors Considered in Counting Rescissions

A rescission is a law that “cancels the availability of budget authority previously 

enacted before the authority would otherwise expire.”2

 We consider any law that 

eliminates previously enacted and currently available budget authority as a 

rescission. 

There are several scenarios in which the timing of legislation with respect to the 

reduction or adjustment of budget authority affects whether we count it as a 

rescission. The following examples illustrate these scenarios. 

• If an act provides budget authority and a subsequent act rescinds some or all 

of that budget authority, we count the adjustment or reduction as a rescission. 

• If an act rescinds budget authority prior to the enactment of the budget 

authority, we do not count the adjustment or reduction as a rescission. 

• If Congress appropriates budget authority and reduces or adjusts the level of 

that authority in the same act, we do not count it as a rescission. 

• If Congress appropriates budget authority in one act and rescinds it in a 

second act, and both acts are signed on the same day, we do not count it as a 

rescission because the budget authority was never currently available. 

• If Congress provides budget authority in an act which delays the effective date 

of the budget authority and rescinds that budget authority in a subsequent act 

before the effective date of its availability, we do not count it as a rescission 

since the budget authority was never currently available. 

• If Congress rescinds an unexpended balance of funds, we count it as a 

rescission. If Congress rescinds an expended balance of funds, we do not 

count it as a rescission since at the time of the putative rescission, it was not 

currently available budget authority. 

• If Congress “rescinds” funds from one account and in the next paragraph 

“appropriates” the same amount to a different account, we consider it 

reallocated budget authority, not a rescission. 

• We do not count any rescission from appropriations for the District of 

Columbia.

 

2

 GAO, A Glossary of Terms Used in the Federal Budget Process, GAO-05-734SP 

(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 2005). 

Page 2 of 3 B-310950.2
Enclosure 3 

Page 3 of 3 B-310950.2

Rescission of an Indefinite or Uncertain Amount of Budget Authority

We must be able to establish a definite amount for the rescission. We do not count 

what is legislatively denoted as a rescission if it comprises an indefinite or uncertain 

amount of budget authority. 

• If the language states that up to a certain amount or an indefinite amount of 

budget authority is rescinded, we have not included these rescissions in our 

statistics. For example, if the language states that “up to” or “not more than” a 

particular amount is rescinded, the amount is indefinite and we do not count it 

as a rescission. When able to verify an exact amount rescinded, we adjust our 

historical tables accordingly.3

 

• If, however, the language rescinds a specific, minimum amount of budget 

authority, we include that amount in our rescission statistics. For example, 

where the law rescinds “not less than” a specific amount we include a 

rescission in that amount, even though more may be rescinded. 

 

3

 For example, we originally did not count a routine annual rescission of contract 

authority provided to the Land and Water Conservation Fund which appears in the 

Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. See, e.g., Pub. L. 

No. 108-7, 117 Stat. 11, 226 (Feb. 20, 2003); Pub. L. No. 107-63, 115 Stat. 414, 425 

(Nov. 5, 2001). The reason we initially excluded this rescission from our statistics 

was that we did not know the specific amount of budget authority rescinded when we 

compiled our statistics. We have confirmed, however, that the annual amount 

rescinded each fiscal year is $30,000,000 and now have included these amounts in our 

statistics.