Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) FY2018 Appropriations: Overview
Released: 2018-04-23T00:00:00

T he Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Treasury (Title I), the Executive Office of the President (EOP; Title II), the judiciary (Title III), the District of Columbia (Title IV), and more than two dozen independent agencies (Title V). The bill typically funds mandatory retirement accounts in Title VI, which also contains additional general provisions applying to the funding provided to agencies through the FSGG bill. Title VII typically contains general provisions applying government-wide. FSGG bills have often also contained provisions relating to U.S. policy toward Cuba.

The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate. This structure has existed in its current form since the 2007 reorganization of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. Although financial services are a major focus of the bills, FSGG appropriations bills do not include funding for many financial regulatory agencies, which are instead funded outside of the appropriations process.

Administration and Congressional Action

President Trump submitted his FY2018 budget request on May 23, 2017. The request included a total of $45.2 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including $250 million for the CFTC.

On July 17, 2017, the House Committee on Appropriations reported a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2018 ( H.R. 3280 , H.Rept. 115-234 ). Total FY2018 funding in the reported bill would have been $42.5 billion, with another $248 million for the CFTC included in the Agriculture appropriations bill ( H.R. 3268 , H.Rept. 115-232 ). The combined total of $42.7 billion would have been about $2.5 billion below the President's FY2018 request, with most of this difference in the funding for the General Services Administration (GSA).

Nearly all of H.R. 3280 's text was included as Division D of H.R. 3354 when it was considered by the House of Representatives beginning on September 6, 2017. The bill was amended numerous times, shifting funding among FSGG agencies but not changing the FSGG totals. H.R. 3354 passed on September 14, 2017.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations released an FY2018 chairmen's recommended FSGG draft bill along with an explanatory statement on November 20, 2017. Funding in the recommended bill totaled $43.3 billion, about $1.9 billion below the President's FY2018 request with most of this difference in funding for the GSA.

With the end of FY2017 approaching and no permanent FY2018 appropriations bills enacted, Congress passed, and the President signed, H.R. 601 / P.L. 115-56 . Division D of this act provided for continuing appropriations through December 8, 2017, generally termed a continuing resolution (CR). P.L. 115-556 provided funding for most FSGG agencies based on the FY2017 funding rate. In addition, the CR contained a number of deviations or "anomalies" from the general formula. The FSGG anomalies focused on decreasing funding related to the presidential transition, which had been increased in FY2017. Four additional CRs were enacted—on December 8, 2017 ( P.L. 115-90 ), December 22, 2017 ( P.L. 115-96 ), January 22, 2018 ( P.L. 115-120 ), and February 8, 2018 ( P.L. 115-123 ). P.L. 115-123 also included an additional $127 million for the GSA and $1.66 billion for the Small Business Administration (SBA), largely to address disaster costs from hurricanes in 2017.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 ( H.R. 1625 , P.L. 115-141 ) was enacted on March 23, 2018. The bill, originally focused on eradication of human trafficking, was amended with the appropriations measure, passed in the House on March 22, 2018, and passed in the Senate on March 23, 2018. The C ongressional Record for March 22, 2018, includes an Explanatory Statement which is to have the same effect as a joint explanatory statement of a conference committee. FSGG appropriations are included in Division E, with the CFTC funded in the Agriculture appropriations in Division A. Additional legislative language affecting financial regulation is in Division S, Titles VIII and IX. FY2018 enacted appropriations in both P.L. 115-141 and P.L. 115-123 totaled $47.7 billion for the FSGG agencies, $2.5 billion above the original request with much of this difference resulting from the emergency funding for the SBA. The GSA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) also had substantial funding differences between requested and enacted amounts. Most of the EAC funding was for grants to states for the election reform program.

Table 1 reflects the status of FSGG appropriations measures at key points in the appropriations process. Table 2 lists the broad amounts requested by the President and included in the various FSGG bills, largely by title, and Table 3 details the amounts for the independent agencies. Specific columns in Table 2 and Table 3 are FSGG agencies' enacted amounts for FY2017, the President's FY2018 request, the FY2018 amounts from H.R. 3554 as passed by the House, from the Senate Appropriations chairmen's draft bill, and the enacted amounts combined from P.L. 115-141 and P.L. 115-123 .

Financial Regulatory Agencies and FSGG Appropriations

Although financial services are a focus of the FSGG bill, the bill does not actually include funding for the regulation of much of the financial services industry. Financial services as an industry is often subdivided into banking, insurance, and securities. Federal regulation of the banking industry is divided among the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (generally known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB). In addition, credit unions, which operate similarly to many banks, are regulated by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). None of these agencies receives its primary funding through the appropriations process, with only the FDIC inspector general and a small program operated by the NCUA currently funded in the FSGG bill.

Insurance generally is regulated at the state level, with some oversight at the holding company level by the Federal Reserve. There is a relatively small Federal Insurance Office (FIO) inside the Treasury, which is funded through the Departmental Offices account, but FIO has no regulatory authority.

Federal securities regulation is divided between the SEC and the CFTC, both of which are funded through appropriations. The CFTC funding is a relatively straightforward appropriation from the general fund, whereas the SEC funding is provided by the FSGG bill, but then offset through fees collected by the SEC.

Although funding for many financial regulatory agencies may not be provided by the FSGG bill, legislative provisions affecting financial regulation in general and some of these agencies specifically have often been included in FSGG bills. H.R. 3280 and H.R. 3354 as passed by the House include many provisions, particularly in Title IX and Title X, that would amend the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and other statutes relating to the regulation of financial institutions and the authority and funding of financial regulators. Many of these provisions were included in other legislation, notably H.R. 10 , which passed the House on June 8, 2017. Of particular interest from the appropriations perspective, H.R. 3280 and H.R. 3354 as passed by the House would bring several financial regulators under the FSGG bill instead of receiving funding from outside of the appropriations process, as is currently the case.

P.L. 115-141 included the texts of H.R. 4267 and H.R. 4792 , both of which address small business access to capital. H.R. 4267 was also included in H.R. 10 , but had not been originally included in H.R. 3280 or H.R. 3354 . The texts of H.R. 4267 and H.R. 4792 , however, were not included in the FSGG portion of the bill. Instead they were in Titles VIII and IX in a separate Division S. None of the language bringing financial regulators under the appropriations process was included in the law as enacted.

Committee Structure and Scope

The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations reorganized their subcommittee structures in early 2007. Each chamber created a new Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. In the House, the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee is composed primarily of agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies, commonly referred to as TTHUD. In addition, the House FSGG Subcommittee was assigned four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

In the Senate, the jurisdiction of the new FSGG Subcommittee is a combination of agencies from the jurisdiction of three previously existing subcommittees. Most of the agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee were assigned to the FSGG subcommittee. In addition, the District of Columbia, which had its own subcommittee in the 109 th Congress, was placed under the purview of the FSGG Subcommittee, as were four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the FCC, FTC, SEC, and SBA. As a result of this reorganization, the House and Senate FSGG Subcommittees have nearly identical jurisdictions, except that the CFTC is under the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee in the Senate and the Agriculture Subcommittee in the House.

CRS FSGG Appropriations Experts

Table 4 below lists various departments and agencies funded through FSGG appropriations and the names and contact information of the CRS expert(s) on these departments and agencies.