Senate Committee Expenditures Resolutions, 115th Congress, and Funding Authorizations Since 1999
Released: 2019-01-04T00:00:00

Background

The Senate biennial committee funding process applies to all Senate committees except Appropriations and Ethics, which have permanent authorizations for their staff and operating expenses. The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration has jurisdiction over committee funding resolutions and issues regulations governing committee funding and staff. Committee funding and staff are also regulated by Senate rules, especially Rule XXVI, clause 9, and Rule XXVII, as well as by statute. The funds authorized and allocated by resolution are appropriated in legislative branch appropriations acts.

Authorization of funding for Senate committees (except the Committee on Appropriations and Select Committee on Ethics) is governed by Senate Rule XXVI, paragraph 9. In recent practice, during the first few months of a new Congress, each Senate committee (except Appropriations and Ethics) typically reports a two-year funding resolution providing for its expenses. These resolutions are then incorporated by the Committee on Rules and Administration into a single, omnibus committee funding resolution . Since the 106 th Congress, committee funding resolutions have divided funds among three calendar periods—from March 1 to September 30 of the first year of a Congress, from October 1 to September 30 of the following year, and from October 1 to end of the following February—to align with the fiscal calendar. This permits the Senate to identify the amounts authorized for each fiscal year and the subsequent appropriations required.

On February 28, 2017, the Senate adopted by unanimous consent S.Res. 62 , authorizing expenditures by Senate committees for the period March 1, 2017, through September 30, 2017, the period October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018, and for the period October 1, 2018, through February 28, 2019.

Table 1 provides the requested and the authorized levels of funding for committees for the 115 th Congress. Table 2 through Table 10 provide committee funding requests and authorizations for Senate committees in the 106 th through 114 th Congresses. Table 11 through Table 19 provide the same information, calculated in constant (January 2017) dollars.