The Congressional Budget Act establishes the budget resolution as a central coordinating mechanism for budgetary decision making. The budget resolution creates enforceable parameters with which spending, revenue, and debt legislation must be consistent. It is not a law. It is not signed by the President nor can it be vetoed. Instead, its purpose is to establish a framework within which Congress considers legislation dealing with spending and revenue. The budget resolution is not intended to establish details of spending or revenue policy. Instead, details of such policy, and legislative language to implement it, are to be included in legislation reported from the committees with legislative jurisdiction subsequent to the adoption of the budget resolution. All spending or revenue legislation reported from legislative committees, however, is expected to be consistent with the levels and priorities agreed to in the budget resolution. The spending policies in the budget resolution encompass two types of spending legislation: discretionary spending and direct (or mandatory) spending. Discretionary spending is controlled through the appropriations process. Appropriations legislation is considered annually for the fiscal year beginning October 1. Appropriations legislation provides funding for numerous activities such as national defense, education, and homeland security, as well as general government operations. Direct spending, alternately, is provided for in legislation outside of appropriations acts. Direct spending programs are typically established in permanent law that continue in effect until such time as they are revised or terminated by another law. The actual annual cost of direct spending is not determined by Congress. It is instead dictated by formulas within the legislation providing for the program. The overall cost of a program depends on the eligibility requirements and benefits set forth in the legislation. These criteria determine who will be eligible to receive benefits and how much benefit they will receive. Only by altering these formulas can Congress adjust how much money will be spent. On March 25, the House Budget Committee marked up and voted to report the House version of the FY2010 budget resolution ( H.Con.Res. 85 , H.Rept. 111-60 ) by a vote of 24-15. During markup, the committee considered 30 amendments to the chairman's mark: one amendment was adopted, 27 amendments were rejected, and two amendments were withdrawn. The Senate Budget Committee considered and marked up the Senate version of the FY2010 budget resolution over the course of two days, March 25 and 26. The Committee voted to report S.Con.Res. 13 by a vote of 13-10. During markup, the committee considered 27 amendments to the chairman's mark: 15 amendments were adopted and 12 amendments were rejected. The House and Senate consider the budget resolution under procedures generally intended to expedite final action. In the House, the budget resolution usually is considered under a special rule, limiting the time of debate and allowing only a few amendments, as substitutes to the entire resolution. On April 1 and 2, the House considered H.Con.Res. 85 under two special rules reported by the House Rules Committee. The first rule ( H.Res. 305 , H.Rept. 111-70 ) provided for four hours general debate only. The second rule ( H.Res. 316 , H.Rept. 111-73 ) made in order the four amendments in the nature of a substitute printed in the House Rules Committee report. During consideration of the FY2010 budget resolution, the House rejected the four amendments made in order by the special rule. The House subsequently agreed to H.Con.Res. 85 by a vote of 233-196. The Senate considers the budget resolution under the procedures set forth in the Budget Act, sometimes as modified by a unanimous consent agreement. Debate on the initial consideration of the budget resolution, and all amendments, debatable motions, and appeals, is limited to 50 hours. Amendments, motions, and appeals may be considered beyond this time limit, but without debate. (Consideration of the conference report is limited to 10 hours.) The Senate considered its version of the FY2010 budget resolution over the course of four days, March 30-April 2. During consideration of S.Con.Res. 13 , the Senate considered 121 amendments: 101 amendments were adopted, 17 amendments were rejected, and three amendment fell on a point of order. On April 2, the Senate agreed to S.Con.Res. 13 , as amended, by a 55-43 vote. After resolving the differences between their respective versions, the House and Senate agreed to the conference report to accompany the FY2010 budget resolution ( S.Con.Res. 13 , H.Rept. 111-89 ) by votes of 233-193 and 53-43, respectively, on April 29. The budget resolution sets forth levels for new budget authority, outlays, revenue, and public debt for the budget year and four outyears. The levels in the budget resolution deal with aggregates, not programmatic spending details. Assumptions concerning some major programs may be discussed in the reports accompanying the budget resolution, but these assumptions are not in the form of legislative language and are not binding on the committee of jurisdiction. The House budget resolution provided for revenue levels of $2,328 billion and outlays of $3,550 billion in FY2010, differing slightly from the Senate budget resolution levels of $2,288 billion in revenues and $3,534 billion in outlays. The House budget resolution also included reconciliation instructions to allow for health care and education initiatives, while the Senate did not include any reconciliation instructions. There were some other differences in the House and Senate budget resolutions, including assumptions regarding future legislation concerning estate tax rates and the number of years for which the alternative minimum tax (AMT) would be patched, as well as the number of reserve funds. A budget resolution conference agreement was filed on April 27, 2009 and included $2,322 billion in revenues and $3,555 billion in outlays for FY2010, resulting in a projected deficit of $1,233 billion. By FY2014, the budget resolution cuts the projected deficit by half to $523 billion. The conference agreement passed both the House and Senate on April 29, 2009. The budget resolution includes programmatic totals broken out by 21 functional categories. Though these amounts are non-binding, these funds are later allocated to House and Senate committees in order to create department and programmatic spending totals for the upcoming fiscal year. An amount of $130 billion in new budget authority is provided for overseas deployment and other activities (i.e., war costs). It is inevitable that Members will consider the impact on particular programs or agencies when they consider a budget resolution. Each committee is required to submit its "views and estimates" with information on the preferences and legislative plans of that committee regarding budget matters to help the Budget Committee develop appropriate spending levels for each of the functional categories. While the budget resolution does not allocate funds among specific agencies or programs, assumptions underlying the amounts set forth in the functional categories are frequently discussed in the reports accompanying the budget resolution. Report language, however, is not binding on the committees with jurisdiction over spending and revenue. In addition, provisions included in the budget resolution also indicate programmatic assumptions or desires. S.Con.Res. 13 includes "Policy" and "Sense of the Congress" language expressing the assumptions and desires of the chambers for certain programs to receive priority in funding. Title V of S.Con.Res. 13 is made up of two sections each indicating that the budget resolution supports certain policy. The first section refers to policy on middle-class tax relief and assumes three additional years of AMT relief (through FY2014), a two-year extension of expired and expiring tax provisions, and a new incentive for retirement savings. The agreement supports the permanent extension of tax relief first enacted in 2001 and 2003 for middle-income taxpayers (the resolution does assume the expiration of the current top two income tax rates, which will rise to 36 percent and 39.6 percent in 2011) and the continuation of current estate tax rates. The second section describes a number of specific defense priorities, such as military healthcare and pay and benefits, and troop readiness. Title VI of S.Con.Res. 13 is comprised of seven "Sense of the Congress" provisions related to a wide spectrum of issues including veterans and servicemembers' health care, homeland security, American innovation and economic competitiveness, pay parity, college affordability and student loan reform, great lakes restoration, and child support enforcement. Neither "Sense of the Congress" provisions nor "Policy" statements are binding on the committees with jurisdiction over spending and revenue, although committees may be influenced by them. Rather than including levels of spending for specific agencies or programs, the budget resolution establishes congressional priorities by dividing spending among the 21 major functional categories of the federal budget. These 21 functional categories do not correspond to the committee system by which Congress operates. As a result, the spending levels in the 21 functional categories are allocated, or "crosswalked," to the House and Senate committees having jurisdiction over discretionary spending (appropriations committees) and direct spending (legislative committees). These "crosswalked" totals appear in the joint explanatory statement of the conference report on the budget resolution and are referred to as 302(a) allocations. These 302(a) amounts hold committees accountable for staying within the spending limits established by the budget resolution. The 302(a) allocations made to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees reflect their jurisdiction over all discretionary spending. These allocations hold the appropriations committees accountable for staying within the spending limits established by the budget resolution. An additional restraint is placed on discretionary spending limits by Sec. 401 of S.Con.Res. 13 . Sec. 401 established a point of order limiting discretionary spending in the Senate to $1,391,471,000,000 in new budget authority and $1,220,843,000,000 in outlays for 2 009; and, $1,086,021 ,000,000 in new budget authority and $1,307,240 ,000,000 in outlays for 2010.