Congress uses an annual appropriations process to provide discretionary spending for federal government agencies. The responsibility for drafting legislation to provide for such spending is currently divided among 12 appropriations subcommittees in each chamber, each of which is tasked with reporting a regular appropriations bill to cover all programs under its jurisdiction. The timetable currently associated with this process requires the enactment of these regular appropriations bills prior to the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1). If regular appropriations are not enacted by that deadline, one or more continuing resolutions (CRs) may be enacted to provide funds until all regular appropriations bills are completed, or the fiscal year ends. During the fiscal year, supplemental appropriations may also be enacted to provide funds in addition to those in regular appropriations acts or CRs. Amounts provided in appropriations acts are subject to limits, both procedural and statutory, which are enforced through respective mechanisms such as points of order and sequestration. The timing and policy focus of the FY2014 appropriations process was influenced by at least two significant factors—the late resolution of FY2013 appropriations and disagreement regarding the level of funding for FY2014 discretionary spending. First, annual appropriations actions for FY2013 were not completed until March 26, 2013 (Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013; P.L. 113-6 ), almost six months into the fiscal year. In addition, on March 1, 2013, the President issued a sequestration order that reduced non-exempt FY2013 discretionary spending. The dollar amount of these reductions was applied to the amounts subsequently appropriated for FY2013. Despite ongoing congressional concern related to these reductions, efforts to broadly restructure or eliminate them were unsuccessful, and the lower levels of funding that were available to agencies as a result of the sequester were in effect through the end of the fiscal year. Second, in addition to the issues related to FY2013 spending, the FY2014 appropriations process was affected by a lack of agreement between the House and Senate over future constraints on discretionary spending as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). Unlike the reductions that occurred in FY2013, the constraints on FY2014 discretionary spending are implemented through statutory discretionary spending limits. Separate limits apply to defense and nondefense spending. The first enforcement of these limits was to occur 15 days after Congress adjourned its session 2013 sine die . On December 10, 2013, the chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees announced an agreement as to the level of FY2014 and FY2015 discretionary spending (the Bipartisan Budget Act; Division A, H.J.Res. 59 ), which was enacted into law on December 26, 2013 ( P.L. 113-67 ). No regular appropriations bills for FY2014 were enacted prior to the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1, 2013), and an interim CR to provide budget authority for the projects and activities covered by those 12 bills did not become law until October 17, 2013 (Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014; P.L. 113-46 ). As a consequence, a 16-day funding gap occurred between October 1 and October 16, 2013. Regular appropriations were ultimately enacted through an omnibus measure, which contained the texts of all 12 regular appropriations bills for FY2014 (the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014; H.R. 3547 , P.L. 113-76 ). Congressional consideration of three supplemental appropriations measures occurred late in the fiscal year ( H.R. 5230 , S. 2648 , and H.J.Res. 76 ). Of these measures, Congress has completed action only on H.J.Res. 76 , a measure that provides additional appropriations for military cooperation with the government of Israel related to the Iron Dome program. This report provides background and analysis with regard to the FY2014 appropriations process. The first section discusses the status of discretionary budget enforcement for FY2014, including the statutory spending limits and allocations under the congressional budget resolution. The second section provides information on the consideration and enactment of regular appropriations and an overview of aggregate discretionary spending. Further information with regard to these appropriations acts is provided in the various CRS reports that analyze and compare the components of the current House and Senate proposals. The third section explains congressional action that has occurred on CRs before and after October 1, and the fourth section discusses action on supplemental appropriations measures. The framework for budget enforcement of discretionary spending under the congressional budget process has both statutory and procedural elements. The statutory elements of budget enforcement are derived from the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), which imposes separate limits on "defense" and "nondefense" discretionary spending that apply to each of the fiscal years between FY2012 and FY2021. Pursuant to procedures under the BCA, the initial limits for FY2014 through FY2021 are to be lowered each fiscal year to achieve certain budgetary savings. However, the Bipartisan Budget Act amended the BCA to set the FY2014 and FY2015 limits at specific levels. If discretionary spending is enacted in excess of these limits, enforcement will occur through sequestration at specified times after appropriations measures are enacted. The procedural elements of budget enforcement generally stem from requirements under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA; P.L. 93-344 ; 88 Stat. 297; 2 USC 60-688). Through this CBA process, the Appropriations Committee in each chamber receives a procedural limit on the total amount of discretionary budget authority for the upcoming fiscal year, referred to as a 302(a) allocation. The Appropriations Committee subsequently divides this allocation amongst the 12 subcommittees, referred to as a 302(b) suballocation. The 302(b) suballocation restricts the amount of budget authority available to each subcommittee for the projects and activities under its jurisdiction, and so effectively acts as a cap on each of the 12 regular appropriations bills. Enforcement of the 302(a) allocation and 302(b) suballocations occur through points of order. The BCA requires that enacted discretionary spending for FY2014 that is subject to the defense and nondefense limits not exceed certain levels, and provides for enforcement of the limits through sequestration. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) evaluates enacted FY2014 discretionary spending relative to the spending limits, and determine if sequestration is necessary to enforce those limits, within 15 calendar days after the 2013 congressional session adjourns sine die . For any discretionary spending that becomes law after the session ends, evaluation and any enforcement of the limits occurs 15 days after enactment. As discussed above, the BCA specifies both the level of the spending limits and a process through which they are to be reduced below their initial levels to achieve a certain amount of savings each of the fiscal years between FY2014 and FY2021. The revised FY2014 limits were $552 billion for defense spending and $506 billion for nondefense spending. Pursuant to the BCA requirements, these limits were further revised to about $498.1 billion for defense spending and about $469.4 billion for nondefense spending. The Bipartisan Budget Act amended these FY2014 levels to $520.5 billion in defense spending, and $491.8 billion in nondefense spending (about $1.012 trillion total). Both the House and Senate completed initial floor consideration of the FY2014 budget resolution during the month of March 2013. The House Budget Committee reported H.Con.Res. 25 on March 15, 2013. The House began floor consideration of the resolution on March 19, and adopted it on March 21, by a vote of 221-207. The Senate Budget Committee also reported its budget resolution proposal, S.Con.Res. 8 , on March 15. The Senate began floor consideration of the resolution on March 21, and adopted it on March 23, by a vote of 50-49. As part of the negotiations surrounding interim continuing appropriations for FY2014, the House and Senate agreed to a conference committee on S.Con.Res. 8 , on October 16. As of the date of this report, no agreement between the conferees has been reached. Both the House- and Senate-adopted budget resolutions assumed levels of discretionary spending different from the further revised BCA limits. These assumptions are compared to the revised, further revised, and amended BCA limits in Table 1 . The House-adopted budget resolution assumed FY2014 discretionary spending subject to the limits to be $552 billion for defense spending and $414.4 billion for nondefense spending (about $966.4 billion total). While this proposal maintained the same discretionary spending total that exists under the further revised BCA limits, it increased defense discretionary spending to its revised BCA level and achieved the offset necessary to keep total consistent with the further revised limits through reductions to nondefense discretionary spending. The Senate-adopted budget resolution assumed the levels of FY2014 discretionary spending to be the same as the revised limits—$552 billion for defense spending and $506 billion for nondefense spending ($1.058 trillion total). To provide for procedural budget enforcement during the consideration of FY2014 appropriations acts, the House Budget Committee report and Senate Budget Committee print accompanying each chamber's version of the budget resolution contains a 302(a) allocation for the Appropriations Committee. The House allocation was $966.4 billion for total FY2014 discretionary spending, consistent with the combined amounts of the existing FY2014 statutory discretionary spending limits, and also with the levels of discretionary spending assumed in the House budget resolution. On July 8, the House Budget Committee revised its 302(a) allocation to about $966.9 billion. The Senate 302(a) allocation was also $966.4 billion, consistent with the total of the existing FY2014 statutory discretionary spending limits, but less than the levels of discretionary spending assumed in the Senate budget resolution. Even without reaching agreement on a budget resolution, each chamber began to consider appropriations bills prior to the beginning of FY2014.