The federal budget process involves both Congress and the executive branch. The Constitution provides in Article I that "no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.... " Article II stipulates that the President "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The practice of impoundment reflects this sharing of powers between the branches in the implementation of the federal budget. The term "impoundment" refers to executive actions to withhold or delay the spending of funds provided in law. The term "rescission" denotes one type of impoundment, that involving permanent cancellation of the funds. While instances of presidential impoundment date back to the early 19 th century, Presidents usually sought accommodation rather than confrontation with Congress. This changed during the Nixon Administration (1969-1974), when impoundment of funds developed into a major conflict, eventually involving the courts as well as Congress and the President. This report begins by reviewing the framework for handling rescissions established by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA, 88 Stat. 332) and by amendments to it in 1987 (101 Stat. 786). A section with review and analysis of data on rescission requests and outcomes pursuant to the 1974 law follows, including comparisons among the respective Administrations. Attention then turns to actions which took place during the brief period that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 (LIVA, P.L. 104-130 , 110 Stat. 1200) was in force. President George W. Bush sent no formal ICA rescission requests to Congress, but some controversy developed over his use of "cancellation statements" proposing spending reductions. The final section of the report provides some concluding observations. The Impoundment Control Act (ICA) was included as Title X of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, signed into law on June 12, 1974 (88 Stat. 332). The act established two categories of impoundments: deferrals, or temporary delays in funding availability; and rescissions, or permanent cancellation of the designated budget authority. The ICA also established new reporting requirements that remain in effect. The 1974 law required the President to inform Congress of all proposed rescissions and deferrals and to submit specified information regarding each such action in a special message. The President may combine several rescission requests in a single impoundment message. Section 1014 of the 1974 law also stipulated that the President transmit to Congress each month a cumulative report on the status of impoundment actions. In 1975, various of these reporting duties were transferred from the President to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) via Executive Order 11845. The ICA also required the Comptroller General of the General Accounting Office (GAO, now the Government Accountability Office), to oversee executive compliance with the law and report to Congress if the President fails to report an impoundment or improperly classifies an action. Both messages from the President and communications from the Comptroller General are published in the Federal Register and subsequently printed as House documents. The act further stipulated different procedures for congressional review and control of the two types of impoundment. With a rescission, the funds must be made available for obligation unless both Houses of Congress take action to approve of the rescission request within 45 days of "continuous session." Recesses of more than three days are not counted. In practice, this usually means that funds proposed for rescission not approved by Congress become available for obligation after about 60 calendar days, although the period can extend to 75 days or longer. The funds may be withheld from obligation until the 45-day period elapses or Congress disapproves the rescission. Congress may alter the amount proposed for rescission by the President, either increasing or decreasing it, as well as approving or disapproving the rescission request in toto. Section 1017 of the ICA establishes expedited procedures for congressional action on "any rescission bill introduced with respect to a special message" submitted by the President. In the fall of 1987, as a component of legislation to raise the limit on the public debt ( P.L. 100-119 ) that also included changes in the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, Congress enacted several other budget process reforms as well. Section 206 effectively eliminated presidential deferrals for policy reasons. Section 207 involved the use of rescission authority. It provides a statutory prohibition against the practice, sometimes used by Presidents when Congress failed to act on a rescission proposal within the 45-day period, of resubmitting a new rescission proposal covering identical or very similar matter. By using such resubmissions repeatedly, the President might continue to tie up the funds even though Congress, by its inaction, had already rejected virtually the same proposal. The legislative history of the 1974 act suggests that prohibiting this practice of seriatim rescission proposals may be consistent with the original intent of Congress. The prohibition on seriatim rescissions in Section 207 applies for the duration of the appropriation, so that it may remain in effect for two or more fiscal years. The Impoundment Control Act has been in effect for over 35 years. According to an assessment of congressional power over impoundments since 1974, coauthored by a former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), "Although the courts did much to curb presidential impoundments, through Title X of the new Budget Act, Congress also helped itself to recapture its influence over the impoundment of funds." In the first few years following enactment of the 1974 law, Congress approved presidential requests in a number of separate rescission bills. Subsequently, Congress tended to act upon rescission messages from the President in supplemental and regular appropriations measures, rather than in individual rescission bills. Under the ICA, unless Congress takes action to approve of a rescission request from the President within the 45-day period, the funds must be released. In practice, however, congressional action on rescission requests has often occurred after the expiration of the 45-day review period, so that funds are formally available for obligation for some time before being permanently rescinded. As noted previously, Congress may approve more or less than the amount requested by the President. In addition, absent a specific request from the President, Congress of its own accord may initiate rescission actions, by cancelling previously appropriated funds in a subsequent law. Such factors can create ambiguities in interpreting data on rescissions proposed by the President and congressional action on them. For example, are funds originally proposed for rescission in a special message, but which again become available for obligation before Congress permanently rescinds them, to be considered as "congressional approval of a President's request" or as a "rescission initiated by Congress"? Table 1 provides data on rescissions from FY1974 through FY2008 as compiled by GAO. According to GAO's methodology, eventual congressional action on a rescission proposed by the President is generally considered as "approval of a President's request" even if the 45-day period has elapsed. Data in Table 2 reflect the outcome of rescission requests of the Presidents since 1974, providing percentages of their respective requests approved by Congress, both in relation to total dollars requested for rescission and to the number of separate proposals, by year and by Administration. In the early months under the new framework, the number of presidentially proposed rescissions increased. In particular, President Ford attempted to rescind funding that Congress had added to the President's budget, mainly involving domestic social programs, but the effort met with limited success. As characterized by [author name scrubbed], "Instead of performing as a restriction on Presidential power, it [the new law] was interpreted by the [Ford] Administration as a new source of authority for withholding funds.... Rescission proposals came up by the bushel; wholesale they were rejected." As indicated in Table 2 , some 34% of President Ford's rescission proposals were accepted by Congress. In terms of the percentage of the total dollar amount requested during the Administration and approved by Congress, President Ford had less overall success (16%) than any of his successors. In contrast to the record in the Ford Administration, President Carter requested far fewer rescissions, but enjoyed much greater success in gaining congressional approval. During the Carter Administration, the same political party (Democrats) controlled both Houses of Congress along with the White House. Allen Schick has suggested that given the common party identity, President Carter was "reluctant to propose rescissions, and Congress [was] reluctant to disapprove those proposed." Some 90% of the rescissions proposed by President Carter involved defense programs, including the cancellation of the B-1 bomber. The Administration of President George W. Bush ( "Bush II") provides a special case with respect to the record of rescissions since 1974. The Republican Party maintained a majority in the House for the first six years of this Administration, and likewise in the Senate for over four years, but President Bush submitted no rescission requests to Congress. Although the figures of zero are duly entered in the accompanying Table 1 and Table 2 , comparisons in this section generally refer to the Ford through Clinton administrations. Developments during the "Bush II" Administration are addressed separately, below. The decline in rescission requests during the Carter Administration proved only temporary. During his first year in office President Reagan submitted more rescission proposals (133) than had President Carter during his entire administration. The largest number of rescission requests in any year (245 in 1985) occurred during the Reagan Administration, as did the greatest amount in terms of total dollars involved (more than $15 billion in 1981). Somewhat coincidentally, President Reagan saw the same percentage acceptance overall of his rescission proposals as the total dollar value—36% (see Table 2 ).