On November 20, 2004, both houses agreed to the conference report on a consolidatedappropriations bill ( H.R. 4818 ), containing the FY2005 legislative branchappropriations bill, along with eight other regular annual appropriations bills on which action hadnot yet been completed. (1) H.R. 4818 was signedby the President on December 8, 2004( P.L. 108-447 , 118 Stat. 2809; 658 pages). The annual legislative branch appropriations bill contains two titles. Appropriations forlegislative branch agencies are contained in Title I. Title II contains general administrativeprovisions, and from time to time, appropriations for legislative branch entities. For example, in theFY2003 Act Title II contained funding for the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Trainingand Development and the Congressional Award Act. Congress changed the structure of the annual legislative branch appropriations bill effective in FY2003. Prior to enactment of the FY2003 bill, and effective in FY1978, the legislative branchappropriations bill was divided into two titles. Title I, Congressional Operations, contained budgetauthorities for activities directly serving Congress. Included in this title were the budgets of theHouse, the Senate, Joint Items (joint House and Senate activities), the Office of Compliance, theCongressional Budget Office (CBO), the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) (except the Library ofCongress (LOC) buildings and grounds), the Congressional Research Service (CRS) within theLibrary of Congress, and congressional printing and binding activities of the Government PrintingOffice (GPO). Title II, Related Agencies, contained budgets for activities not directly supporting Congress. Included in this title were budgets of the Botanic Garden, the Library of Congress (except theCongressional Research Service), the Library buildings and grounds maintained by the Architect ofthe Capitol, the Government Printing Office (except congressional printing and binding costs), andthe Government Accountability Office (GAO), formerly named the General Accounting Office. Periodically since FY1978, the bill contained additional titles for such purposes as capitalimprovements and special one-time functions. In addition to activities funded in the annual legislative branch appropriations bill, other legislative budget authorities include permanent budget authority for both federal funds and trustfunds, and non-legislative entities. These include the following: Permanent federal funds are available as the result of previously enacted legislation and do not require annual action. (2) Permanent trust funds are monies held in accounts credited with collections from specific sources earmarked by law for a defined purpose. Trust funds do not appear in the annual legislativebill since they are not budget authority. They are included in the U.S. Budget, prepared by the Officeof Management and Budget, either as budget receipts or offsetting collections. (3) The U.S. Budget also contains non-legislative entities within the legislative branch budget. They are funded in other appropriation bills, but are counted as legislative branch funds by the Officeof Management and Budget for bookkeeping purposes. (4) For a more accurate picture of the legislative branch budget, as contained in the annual legislative branch appropriation bill, the total FY2005 legislative branch appropriation figure in theFY2005 U.S. Budget must be adjusted. This is accomplished by subtracting non-legislative fundsand permanent federal and trust funds. The FY2005 U.S. Budget contains a legislative budgetauthority request of $4.4 billion. After subtracting non-legislative entities ($48 million), permanentfederal funds ($358 million), and permanent trust funds ($27 million), the total request for entitiesfunded in the regular annual appropriation bill is $3.97 billion. Table 1. Legislative Branch Appropriations, FY1995 - FY2005 (budget authority in billions of current dollars) a a. These figures represent current dollars, exclude permanent budget authorities, and contain supplementals and rescissions. Permanent budget authorities are not included in theannual legislative branch appropriations bill, but rather, are automatically fundedannually. b. Includes budget authority contained in the FY1999 regular annual Legislative BranchAppropriations Act ( P.L. 105-275 ), the FY1999 emergency supplemental appropriation( P.L. 105-277 ), and the FY1999 supplemental appropriation ( P.L. 106-31 ). c. Includes budget authority contained in the FY2000 regular annual Legislative BranchAppropriations Act ( P.L. 106-57 ); a supplemental and a 0.38% rescission in P.L.106-113 ; and supplementals in P.L. 106-246 and P.L. 106-554 . d. This figure contains: (1) FY2001 regular annual appropriations contained in H.R. 5657 , legislative branch appropriations bill; (2) FY2001 supplementalappropriations of $118 million and a 0.22% across-the-board rescission contained in H.R. 5666 , miscellaneous appropriations bill; and (3) FY2001 supplementalappropriations of $79.5 million contained in H.R. 2216 ( P.L. 107-20 ). H.R. 5657 and H.R. 5666 were incorporated by reference in P.L. 106-554 , FY2001 Consolidated Appropriations Act. The first FY2001legislativebranch appropriations bill, H.R. 4516 , was vetoed Oct. 30, 2000. Thesecond legislative branch appropriations bill, H.R. 5657 , was introducedDec. 14, 2000, and incorporated in P.L. 106-554 . This figure does not reflect anyterrorism supplementals funds released pursuant to P.L. 107-38 . e. This figure contains regular annual appropriations in P.L. 107-68 ; transferred from thelegislative branch emergency response fund pursuant to P.L. 107-117 ; and FY2002supplemental appropriations in P.L. 107-206 . f. This figure contains regular annual appropriations in P.L. 108-7 , FY2003 OmnibusAppropriations Act, and supplemental appropriations in P.L. 108-11 . g. This figure contains regular annual appropriations in P.L. 108-83 , FY2004 LegislativeBranch Appropriations Act. Additional FY2004 provisions which did not containappropriations were contained in P.L. 108-199 , the FY2004 Consolidated AppropriationsAct. h. This figure contains regular annual appropriations in P.L. 108-447 , ConsolidatedAppropriations Act, FY2005. Table 2. Status of Legislative Branch Appropriations,FY2005 ( P.L. 108-447 , Consolidated Appropriations Act, FY2005) a. The bill was marked up by the House Subcommittee on Legislative Branch on June 16, 2004. b. The Senate Subcommittee on Legislative Branch did not hold a formal markup. Submission of FY2005 Budget Request on February 3, 2004. A substantial part of the 12.5% increase requested is to meet (1)mandatory expenses, which includes funding for annual salary adjustments required by lawand related personnel expenses, such as increased government contributions to retirementbased on increased pay, and (2) expenses related to increases in the costs of goods andservices due to inflation. Submission of FY2005 Budget Amendments on May 6, 2004. The President submitted amendments to pending FY2005 legislativebranch budgets. These amendments were based on requests of legislative branch entities, and contain an additional $2.7 million in net discretionary resources. The amendments containfunds for the Senate ($1.7 million), (5) Joint EconomicCommittee ($4,000), Capitol GuideService and Special Services Office ($5,000), Library of Congress Copyright Office($810,000), (6) and Congressional Research Service($200,000). (7) Another amendment eliminated a proviso governing the use of some appropriations requested for the Congressional-Executive Commission on the People's Republic of China. The commission is not funded in the annual legislative appropriation bill, but rather is placedin the legislative branch section of the U.S. Budget by the Office of Management and Budgetfor bookkeeping purposes. House Hearings on FY2005 Budget Request. The first House hearing scheduled for February 25, 2004, wascancelled that morning by Representative Jack Kingston, chairman of the Subcommittee onLegislative Branch. Referring to significant increases in agency requests, RepresentativeKingston stated that With record deficits, a war on terrorism, and troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, the budget is too tight to waste our timeentertaining requests for a 40-percent spending increase. The President's budget calls for anincrease of less than one-percent in non-defense and non-homeland security discretionaryspending but these 'inside the beltway' bureaucracies want 32- to 45-percent increases. (8) The chairman subsequently requested the heads of legislative entities to resubmit revised, reduced budgets, and to explain the impact on authorized staff levels. Among legislative entities with requests containing increases of 32% or more are the Capitol Police (32.7%) and the Architect of the Capitol (45.2%). The Office of Compliancerequested a 31.6% increase. On April 22, 2004, the House held its first hearing, considering budget requests of the House of Representatives and GAO. Hearings continued April 28 on the budgets of theCapitol Police and GPO, and were followed by May 12 hearings on the budget submissionsof the AOC, LOC, and Capitol Visitors' Center (CVC). Plans are pending for a closedhearing on Capitol Hill security. Senate Hearings on FY2005 Budget Requests.