How often is “bimonthly”? How often is “bimonthly”? By Simon Kewin If something is “bimonthly”, does it occur twice a month or once every two months? In fact, just to demonstrate how slippery the English language can sometimes be, the correct answer would be “either”. The Oxford English Dictionary definition is very straightforward : appearing or taking place twice a month or every two months.” It’s fair to say that “every two months” would be the more common usage of the word, but there’s no guarantee that a reader will assume one meaning or the other. If you want to use the term it may be worth spelling out (at least once) what you mean by it. Or just use different words, such as “every two months”. In the US, the word “semimonthly” is often used to mean “twice a month” but this is not a common word in other parts of the world, such as the UK. The same problem occurs with words for other periods of time. Bi-weekly, for example, can mean both “twice a week” and “once every two weeks”.

So, strictly speaking it isn’t clear whether a “bi-weekly” publication will appear once or four times over a two week period. Similarly a biannual magazine could be published once every six months or once every twenty-four. On the other hand, the word “biennial” is unambiguous and means “once every two years” or “lasting two years”. This word is thus often used to refer to plants that only flower or fruit in their second year of life. The ambiguity of language can be a part of its beauty, especially if you are writing fiction or poetry. But if you want to be sure of conveying a precise meaning, there are some words that are best avoided. Subscribe to Receive our Articles and Exercises via Email You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! Subscribers get access to our exercise archives, writing courses, writing jobs and much more! You'll also get three bonus ebooks completely free! 16 Responses to “How often is “bimonthly”?” spike1 on April 26, 2010 9:11 am For the twice a month and once every two weeks words… Why not just use fortnightly?

Emma on April 26, 2010 9:39 am My thoughts exactly, Spike – though I think it’s a particularly UK English word. Cecily on April 26, 2010 10:23 am As a speaker or writer, it’s easy and sensible to avoid “bimonthly” and use either “fortnightly” or “every two months”, but that doesn’t solve the problem of guessing what someone else meant when they use it. Similarly, although there is a difference between “biannual” (twice a year) and “biennial” (every two years), I suspect many are unaware of that distinction, so both are best avoided. G on April 26, 2010 12:20 pm Thank you for this post. I frequently have to ask people what they mean when they use these “bi” terms. I wonder, though, where you got the information that “every two months” would be the more common usage of bimonthly. I worked for a multinational corporation with hundreds of thousands of employees. We were paid bimonthly–which was every 2 weeks.

“Bimonthly” was frequently used in this corporation, and always meant every 2 weeks to everyone. I agree, the terms are very ambiguous. Charlie on April 26, 2010 3:54 pm Twice a — works well for me. Cuts the confusion. Fortnight is UK to me (I’m USA), but easier to understand than bi–. Would rather plain and simple than have to guess at what the writer is meaning. Glad I’m not alone in the confusion. Peter on April 27, 2010 3:13 am I use “fortnight”…but I always seem to confuse people when I use “sennight” as well… Simon Kewin on April 27, 2010 4:07 am “Sennight” is a lovely word – it just means one week (from “seven nights, just as fortnight is from “fourteen nights”) – but it is considered archaic these days, unfortunately. Taja on April 28, 2010 1:42 pm I completely agree on the fact of how the English language can be so slippery and misused.

When using the English language, sometimes it can become very tricky depending on the origins. Dutch including other languages has contributed to the English slang but that does not mean its a bad thing. Bimonthly can be used as an adjective, adverb and noun so that may confuse people into using it in the wrong manner. I say in order to be safe when using words that you are not too sure about, Just don’t use them at all unless you do a little background check. Great blog! I look forward to reading more of your blog posts. Cecily on April 30, 2010 4:03 pm @Taja: Bimonthly as a noun? I beg to differ. The problem with bimonthly isn’t what sort of word it is, but rather, what it means. Best to avoid it. Alex on December 21, 2010 12:54 pm what does bisect mean?.. Cut in two.. I’m really amazed that the dictionary has two meanings that are vastly different. Pick one, publish it and be done. Biannual, means twice a year. Bilateral contract means two parties, not two contracts.

Bisexual, favors both sexes in one person… not favors two partners. Biweekly, twice a week Biannual, twice a year. Quarterly, 4 times a year, every three months fortnightly, every two weeks.. (note: not the same as bimonthly as there are more than 4 weeks in some months..) Cecily on December 22, 2010 6:58 am Alex, a dictionary that did that wouldn’t be very useful, for two reasons: 1. Most people never look at a dictionary at all, let alone for words they think they know the meaning of and can spell, so they would never discover the new/only meaning. 2. Because of the above, some people would still use the words in the “wrong” way and anyone who did look in a dictionary for clarification would see only one meaning and assume that was the one that was meant, even though it wasn’t. rita on January 04, 2011 12:15 pm this blog is really really great; first of all, i have never heard or come across the word sen-night or forthnigth but today, i got to know about it through this blog.

so who ever started this is truly doing a great job….. but one more thing, if twice in a months is called bimonthly what then will once in two months be called Alex on January 06, 2011 9:52 pm @Cecily- 1) Very true, however, there would be a place to point them toward. 2) We’d need to make a new word for “Every Two Months”….. OR, I actually took 10 min time to reflect on the above. bi- from my latin class means two. so…bisect really means two sections not cut in two. Bipedal, like us humans means two feet. Semi means “in two.” Take this route and you have my list above but modified… and I do think this will fix everything. SemiWeekly, twice a week Biweekly, every other week, same as fortnightly SemiMonthly, twice a month, say 1st and 15th Bimonthly, Every other Month Quarterly, 4 times a year, every three months Annually, yearly Biannually, every other year So, I switched teams and will begin using the above in my meeting notices.

With the above explaination to back me up. Alan on April 24, 2011 8:42 pm Thank You Alex… You said it succinctly. The Publishing Bus. at some point in time made up their own meaning. I’ll continue to use it that way & be wrongly corrected by those of limited experience. Geoff Hetherington on October 13, 2015 9:52 am Alex, “biennial” is the one “bi-” word indicating a period of time about which there is no dispute: It means once in or every two years and in particular has been used as such in the world of horticulture for plants that flower every second year. In your proposed scheme, it is “bi-annual” that would have to mean twice a year. Geoff Hetherington on October 13, 2015 10:38 am “Bi-sect” – describes the action of taking a whole, cutting (sect) it in two (bi-) to obtain two bits, which could be uneven, but in the absence of description to the contrary, let’s assume two halves.

Bi-annual – describing something that occurs in two parts of the year ie twice a year, usually but not necessarily every six months. “Six-monthly” where it is precisely that, “bi-annual” where it could be unevenly spread across the twelve months. Ditto, therefore, for bi-monthly (= twice in one month) and bi-weekly (twice in one week). Fortnightly (uncontentiously) means every two weeks or once in two weeks (and sennight, apparently – thanks for that contribution, Peter – means weekly or once a week). The need, if there is one, if for a snappier way of saying every two months in the same way that we have “quarterly” for every three months. Quarterly derives from “quarter-yearly” and equates to half-yearly, which is synonymous with bi-annually. The richness of English allows synonyms to convey nuanced as well as sharply distinct meanings. It would be usual for a company to release half-yearly earnings figures, rather than bi-annual figures, although the half-yearly results would be released bi-annually (if you’ll excuse the tautology).

A word is needed for the division of a year that is a two month period – ie a sixth part. Failing that, we are left with describing two months as a multiple of one month – ie two-monthly, every two months, once in two months. That the English did not come up with a word for two months perhaps reflects that such a period of time was of no use to them in their lives. Seasons are quarterly, the legal calendar is quarterly (“Quarter Sessions”), financial reporting is quarterly. All that said, I recall having used “bi-monthly” to mean two months without having checked or thought about it, but realising now that it seems illogical to do so. Biannual | Definition of Biannual by Merriam-Webster How Often Is 'Biweekly'? What do bimonthly and biweekly mean? Many people are puzzled about bimonthly and biweekly, which are often ambiguous because they are formed from two different senses of bi-: “occurring every two” and “occurring two times.” This ambiguity has been in existence for nearly a century and a half and cannot be eliminated by the dictionary.

The chief difficulty is that many users of these words assume that others know exactly what they mean, and they do not bother to make their context clear. So if you need bimonthly or biweekly, you should leave some clues in your context to the sense of bi- you mean. And if you need the meaning “twice a,” you can substitute semi- for bi-. Biannual and biennial are usually differentiated. Examples of biannual in a sentence Politicians still tremble when Barry begins his biannual comeback flirtations. … But if they'd spent less time looking over their shoulders and more time looking over election returns, they'd have seen that Barry was likely heading for a poleaxing when he called it quits. —Michael Schaffer, New Republic, 22 Apr. 2002 … have recommended routine annual or biannual mammographic screening for asymptomatic women without a personal or family history of breast cancer, starting at the age of 40. —Nels Marcus Thygeson, Journal of the American Medical Association, 8 July 1986 One of the more fascinating commonplace facts about the whitetail is its biannual change of color.

Summer, when deer come “into the red,” as the saying goes, scant reddish-brown hairs replace the winter coat. Fall, deer come back “into the blue,” though less than blue, with a thick pelage of hollow, grayish-tan hairs … —John G. Mitchell, Smithsonian, November 1982 The group holds biannual meetings in December and July. The art show is a biannual event that won't happen again for two more years. Did You Know? When we describe something as biannual, we can mean either that it occurs twice a year or that it occurs once every two years. So how does someone know which particular meaning we have in mind? Well, unless we provide them with a contextual clue, they don't. Some people prefer to use semiannual to refer to something that occurs twice a year, reserving biannual for things that occur once every two years. This practice is hardly universal among English speakers, however, and biannual remains a potentially ambiguous word. Fortunately, English also provides us with biennial, a word that specifically refers to something that occurs every two years or that lasts or continues for two years.

1877 First Known Use of biannual 1877 What Are Biennial Plants? (Definition, List) What Are Biennial Plants? And Why It Is Important to Know Forget-me-not flowers are an example of biennial plants. David Beaulieu By David Beaulieu Updated January 09, 2017. Biennial plants grow only vegetation in their first year. After overwintering in a dormant state, they flower in their second year (thus the "bi-" prefix), produce seed, then die. To reinforce this meaning with beginners, it is sometimes easiest to answer two related questions at the same time: What does "perennial" mean? That is, learning the difference between biennials and these other plant groups will help you understand the definition better. Biennials can be seen as plants whose longevity status places them in-between annuals and perennials. Do you confuse the terms "biennial" (as in biennial plants) and "biannual" (as in biannual elections)? The confusion is understandable. The latter adjective is defined as pertaining to something that happens once every two years; when dictionaries define it, they often list the former as a synonym, which can be misleading.

An example of something that can be biannual is an event, such as Congressional elections in the United States of America. continue reading below our video Decor Secrets Home Stagers Don't Want You to Know When the subject is plants, however, "biennial" is the right word to use. This adjective (or noun) is defined as pertaining to a plant that lasts for two years. Notice the difference: The idea that something "lasts for two years" is very different from the idea that it "happens once every two years." Congressional elections occur every other year, but they are not around all the time (thank goodness) during the course of those two years, the way biennial plants are. If you remember that, you will never forget the difference between "biennial" and "biannual." The Biology of Biennial Plants, and a List of Examples Biennials complete their life cycle in a two-year period. What mission must a plant accomplish in its life cycle? It must reproduce. Biennial plants bloom and set seed in their second year (during their first year, they just look like a bunch of leaves). After that -- having accomplished their one mission in life -- they die. They simply have no reason to go on living.

The following are (or can be) biennial plants; click any link on the list to learn more about that particular plant: Wallflower (Erysimum cheiri) If Only It Were That Easy Note that the descriptions for certain plants will sometimes say, "may be a biennial or short-lived perennial." The lack of absolute clarity is unfortunate, but unavoidable. One of the entries on the list above (foxglove) is an example of a plant whose status is not entirely clear-cut; so do not be surprised to see such a plant listed as a perennial somewhere. So while these classifications are important to learn, be aware they are not always as nice and tidy as we would like. In the case of poppy flowers, we must be very careful to specify exactly what type of poppy we mean: Iceland poppies (Papaver nudicaule) can be biennial plants. Opium poppies (Papaver somniferum) are annuals. Why Is It Important to Distinguish Biennial Plants From Others? "I did not understand why my new plant was not flowering until a gardening friend informed me that it was a biennial and would not flower until its second year.

I wish I had known earlier, because waiting for the flowers had me pulling my hair out." Have you ever heard (or made) an admission like this? It is very common. Gardeners lose sleep over this sort of thing all of the time. Likewise, if you do not realize that a plant is a biennial, you might be waiting -- and waiting, and waiting -- for it to re-emerge in your garden in the spring of year three. If it is truly a biennial, you will be waiting forever (and experiencing unnecessary frustration), because it has already died (right on schedule). No amount of watering, fertilizing, etc. will bring it back. And if you buy the same type of plant again, the exact same thing will happen again. That is why it is not merely an academic exercise to define something like "biennial plants." Sure, you can impress your friends by drawing a distinction between "biennial" and "biannual" (see above). But what is more important is understanding the biology that makes these plants biennial (rather than annual or perennial). If you understand the biology (in this case, the two-year reproductive cycle), you can save yourself some frustration and wasted energy.

Biennial | Define Biennial at Dictionary.com biennial [bahy-en-ee-uh l] /baɪˈɛn i əl/ Spell adjective, Also, biyearly (for defs 1, 2). 1. lasting or enduring for two years: a biennial life cycle. 3. Botany. completing its normal term of life in two years, flowering and fruiting the second year, as beets or winter wheat. noun any event occurring once in two years. 5. biannual , biennial, semiannual (see usage note at bi- ) Usage note Examples from the Web for biennial Expand Contemporary Examples Those are results of the biennial Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey of public opinion on foreign policy (PDF). Grasses are annual, biennial, or perennial, and it is often of importance to know which. Grasses H. Marshall Ward These biennial appropriations ended in 1893 with the increase of the mill-tax from one-twentieth to one-sixth of a mill. Island Life Alfred Russel Wallace Though classed as a biennial, it sometimes lingers on through a third summer, and continues flowering.

British Dictionary definitions for biennial Expand lasting two years Compare biannual noun 3. a plant, such as the carrot, that completes its life cycle within two years, developing vegetative storage parts during the first year and flowering and fruiting in its second year Compare annual (sense 3), perennial (sense 3) 4. an event that takes place every two years Derived Forms Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for biennial Expand adj. "lasting for two years" (1620s); "occurring every two years" (1750), from Latin biennium "two-year period," from bi- (see bi- ) + annus "year" (see annual ).

The vowel change is "due to the Latin phonetic law according to which the unaccented and closed radical syllable of the second element of compounds, original -ă- becomes -ĕ-" [Klein]. The noun meaning "a biennial plant" is attested by 1770. Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Biennial - definition of biennial by The Free Dictionary Biennial - definition of biennial by The Free Dictionary 1. Lasting or living for two years. 2. Happening every second year. 3. Botany Having a life cycle that normally takes two growing seasons to complete. n. 1. An event that occurs every two years. 2. Botany a. A plant that normally requires two seasons to complete its life cycle, growing usually as a rosette in the first season and producing flowers and fruits and then dying in the second season. b. A perennial plant, such as the English daisy, cultivated as a biennial. bi·en′ni·al·ly adv. biennial 1. occurring every two years 2. lasting two years. Compare biannual n 3.

(Botany) a plant, such as the carrot, that completes its life cycle within two years, developing vegetative storage parts during the first year and flowering and fruiting in its second year. Compare annual 3, perennial 3 4. an event that takes place every two years biˈennially adv 1. happening every two years: biennial games. 2. lasting or enduring for two years. 3. (of a plant) requiring two years to complete a life cycle; blooming and forming seeds in the second year. n. 4. an event occurring once in two years. 5. a biennial plant. Also, biyearly (for defs. 1, 2). [1615–25] bi•en′ni•al•ly, adv. bi·en·ni·al Completing a life cycle normally in two growing seasons. Noun A biennial plant. Carrots, parsnips, and sugar beets are some examples of biennials. biennial 1. A plant with a two-year life cycle. 2. A plant that dies after its second growing season, usually not flowering until the second year.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1. biennial - (botany) a plant having a life cycle that normally takes two seasons from germination to death to complete; flowering biennials usually bloom and fruit in the second season plant life , flora , plant - (botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion phytology , botany - the branch of biology that studies plants Adj. 1. biennial - having a life cycle lasting two seasons; "a biennial life cycle"; "parsnips and carrots are biennial plants often grown as annuals" phytology , botany - the branch of biology that studies plants annual , one-year - completing its life cycle within a year; "a border of annual flowering plants" perennial - lasting three seasons or more; "the common buttercup is a popular perennial plant" 2. periodic , periodical - happening or recurring at regular intervals; "the periodic appearance of the seventeen-year locust" Translations ، حادِثٌ أو عائِشٌ كلَّ سَنَتيْن dvouletý B.

N (= plant) → planta f bienal biennial n (= plant) → plante f bisannuelle , bisannuel m biennial 2. n (pianta) → biennale f biennial (baiˈeniəl) adjective (of plants etc) lasting for two years. Wallflowers are biennial; a biennial plant.

tweejarige ، حادِثٌ أو عائِشٌ كلَّ سَنَتيْن двугодишен bienal dvouletý zweijährig toårig διετής bienal kaheaastane گیاهی که دو سال زنده است kaksivuotinen bisannuel דוּ-שׁנָתִי द्विवार्षिक dvogodišnji kétévenkénti, kétéves tahan dua tahunan tvíær biennale 二年生の (植物) 2년생의 dvimetis divgadīgs (augs) setiap dua tahun tweejarig toårig dwuletni bienal bienal двухлетний dvojročný dveleten dvogodišnji tvåårig, tvåårs-, bienn เกิดขึ้นทุก ๆ สองปี iki yıllık (指植物)兩年生而於第二年結實的 дворічний; такий, що т

рапляється раз у два роки دوسالہ hai năm 两年一次的，二年生的 Want to thank TFD for its existence?

Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: clotbur References in classic literature ? Is it probable that it would be persevered in, and transmitted along through all the successive variations in a representative body, which biennial elections would naturally produce in both houses? View in context In order to decide on the propriety of this article, two questions must be considered: first, whether biennial elections will, in this case, be safe; secondly, whether they be necessary or useful. And if we may argue from the degree of liberty retained even under septennial elections, and all the other vicious ingredients in the parliamentary constitution, we cannot doubt that a reduction of the period from seven to three years, with the other necessary reforms, would so far extend the influence of the people over their representatives as to satisfy us that biennial elections, under the federal system, cannot possibly be dangerous to the requisite dependence of the House of Representatives on their constituents.

As far as we can draw any conclusion from it, it must be that if the people of that country have been able under all these disadvantages to retain any liberty whatever, the advantage of biennial elections would secure to them every degree of liberty, which might depend on a due connection between their representatives and themselves. Have we any reason to infer, from the spirit and conduct of the representatives of the people, prior to the Revolution, that biennial elections would have been dangerous to the public liberties? Biennial | Definition of Biennial by Merriam-Webster See biennial defined for kids What do bimonthly and biweekly mean? Many people are puzzled about bimonthly and biweekly, which are often ambiguous because they are formed from two different senses of bi-: “occurring every two” and “occurring two times.” This ambiguity has been in existence for nearly a century and a half and cannot be eliminated by the dictionary. The chief difficulty is that many users of these words assume that others know exactly what they mean, and they do not bother to make their context clear. So if you need bimonthly or biweekly, you should leave some clues in your context to the sense of bi- you mean.

And if you need the meaning “twice a,” you can substitute semi- for bi-. Biannual and biennial are usually differentiated. Examples of biennial in a sentence The governor explained the biennial budget proposal. Did You Know? Biennial conventions, celebrations, competitions, and sports events come every two years. Biennials are plants that live two years, bearing flowers and fruit only in the second year. (Carrots and sugar beets are two examples; since we're only interested in their roots, we don't wait another year to see their flower and fruit.) In contrast, semiannual means "twice a year". But no one can agree whether biweekly means "twice a week" or "every two weeks", and whether bimonthly means "twice a month" or "every two months". Maybe we should stop using both of them until we can decide. 1562 First Known Use of biennial 1562 Biennial Budgeting: Do the Drawbacks Outweigh the Advantages? -- Revised 5/5/00 Do the Drawbacks Outweigh the Advantages?

View the report in PDF format The House of Representatives may consider a proposal to move the federal budget from an annual to a biennial cycle during consideration of a scaled-down version of H.R. 853, the Comprehensive Budget Process Reform Act of 1999, that is tentatively scheduled for the week of May 8. Legislation to institute biennial budgeting has also been introduced in the Senate by Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici and reported by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. That legislation may be considered by the Senate in the next few months. Proponents of biennial budgeting present it as a reform that will lead to more thoughtful and deliberative budgeting and allow more time for Congressional oversight. Biennial budgeting is likely to have many effects, however, not all of which are positive. Many budget experts believe, in fact, that the disadvantages of biennial budgeting outweigh the advantages and make it an unwise course to pursue. The General Accounting Office, among others, has expressed reservations about moving from annual to biennial appropriation bills.

(1) It also may be noted that the majority of states, including nearly all large states, use annual rather than biennial budgeting, and that about half the states have abandoned biennial budgeting in recent decades because of problems it was causing. The GAO has reported that the number of states that moved from biennial to annual budgeting over the past 30 years is nearly four times the number that moved from annual to biennial budgeting. The experience of large states is essentially one of having tried biennial budgeting and discarded it. This analysis examines the limitations of biennial budgeting. Budgeting Too Far in Advance Biennial budgeting involves working on budgets very far in advance. Agencies would begin to put together budgets for the second year of a two-year cycle at least 28 months before the year would start and 40 months before the year ends. Federal agencies typically begin working no later than June on the budget the President submits the following January or February for the fiscal year that will commence the following October. Under biennial budgeting, agencies would begin working in June on a two-year budget, the second year of which would not commence for 2 1/3 years.

Similarly, OMB and the White House usually make the key decisions on the President's budget in November and December. These decisions would come 22 to 23 months before the beginning — and 34 to 35 months before the end — of the second year of a biennial cycle. The experience of large states is essentially one of having tried biennial budgeting and discarded it. Such long lead times would result in decisions that become outdated. During the intervening period, there would inevitably be findings concerning the effectiveness of various programs and changes needed in those programs from GAO reports, Inspector Generals' reports, and research studies. Under biennial budgeting, a year may be lost before these findings and developments can be reflected in budget decisions. GAO Cautions about Biennial Budgeting "This change [biennial budgeting] has often been suggested as a way to streamline the budget process, provide more focused time for congressional oversight of programs and, by providing funding for a longer period of time, enhance agencies’ ability to manage their operations. While these are laudable goals, shifting the entire annual budget cycle to a biennial one is not necessary to achieve these ends....

"Advocates of biennial budgeting often point to the experience of individual states. In looking to the states it is necessary to disaggregate them into several categories. First, 8 states have biennial legislative cycles and hence necessarily have biennial budget cycles. Second...the 42 states with annual legislative cycles present a mixed picture in terms of budget cycles: 27 describe their budget cycles as annual, 12 describe their budget cycles as biennial and 3 describe their budget cycles as mixed. "...the state experience may offer some insights for your deliberations. Perhaps significant is the fact that most states that describe their budget cycles as biennial or mixed are small and medium sized. Of the 10 largest states in terms of general fund expenditures, Ohio is the only one with an annual legislative cycle and a biennial budget.... "We have previously reported that if the Congress decides to implement a 2-year budget at the appropriation level, it should proceed cautiously by testing it on a limited basis.... "While budgeting always involves forecasting, which itself is uncertain, the longer the period of the forecast, the greater the uncertainty. Increased difficulty in forecasting was one of the primary reasons states gave for shifting from biennial to annual cycles.

Dramatic changes in program design or agency structure...will make budget forecasting more difficult. Moving from an annual to a biennial appropriations cycle at the same time may not be wise, given that there may be program changes which could in turn create the need for major budgeting changes in the second year of a biennium. If this happens, biennial budgeting would exist only in theory." - from "Issues in Biennial Budget Proposals," Testimony of Susan J. Irving, Associate Director for Budget Issues, Accounting and Information Management Division, General Accounting Office, before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, July 24, 1996. Substantial changes in economic conditions also can occur in the intervening period. Biennial budgeting would make it harder for the federal government to respond expeditiously to changes in such conditions. Because decisions relating to the second year of the two-year-cycle would be made so far in advance, it would be more difficult for the government to use fiscal policy to help stabilize the U.S. economy when the economy weakened unless significant changes were made during the second year of a biennial budget cycle.

Biennial budgeting also would make it more difficult for the President and Congress to respond promptly to other types of problems as they arise. Problems such as an unexpected increase in AIDS cases or in the incidence of another disease, or a rise in drug trafficking, could arise and necessitate a response. So could international developments that bear on the nation's military or foreign aid posture. If a need for resources in a particular area unexpectedly emerged, finding the funds to meet the need would be more difficult under a biennial budgeting regimen. Securing the needed funds could entail rescinding funds appropriated for other programs for the second year of a two-year cycle, something that generally is difficult to do. By contrast, under annual budgeting, no appropriations decisions would yet have been made for the second year. It always is easier to shift funds before appropriations bills are enacted than afterward. As a result, the need for supplemental appropriations that are in addition to other funding would likely increase under biennial budgeting. Biennial Budgeting May Protect the Status Quo Biennial budgeting also may hinder broader effects to reorder federal budget priorities. Securing shifts in priorities often involves challenging the status quo and taking on strong constituencies that protect various lower-priority discretionary programs.

Because of resistance to such shifts in priorities, funding shifts tend to occur incrementally; each year, appropriation levels for lower-priority programs can be nudged down somewhat, while important new initiatives can be ratcheted up somewhat. If appropriations decisions are made only once every two years, however, the process of reordering budget priorities may proceed more slowly. Lower-priority programs are likely to be reduced at slower rates, because appropriators and Congress at large tend not to take big bites out of existing programs at one time. While biennial budgeting represents change in the budget process, it can serve to reduce the degree of change in budget decisions. Biennial Budgets Will Have to Be Revised Frequently As these observations about changes in needs over a two-year cycle suggest, biennial budgeting is not likely to work in the real world in the way it appears on paper. The pressures to revise the budget during the two-year period will be strong, likely leading to frequent budget revisions and supplemental bills on a much larger scale than in the past. Budget revisions and supplementals often involve less-rigorous Congressional analysis of larger budget matters than does the regular budget process.

The revisions that will occur under a biennial budgeting process may, in the end, result in nearly as much budgeting activity as under the current annual budget process, but with much of the budget revision activity being conducted on an ad hoc basis rather than as part of the more comprehensive examination of budget priorities the regular budget process provides. Will Biennial Budgeting Improve Congressional Operations? One argument made on behalf of biennial budgeting is that it will improve Congressional operations, giving Congress more time for oversight. This argument appears to be overstated. What is traditionally thought of as oversight is done primarily by authorizing committees, which do not operate on an annual budget cycle. Switching from annual to biennial budgeting is unlikely to have a major effect on the amount of time authorizing committees have to evaluate programs over which they exercise jurisdiction. Furthermore, a significant amount of oversight is conducted by the appropriations committees in the course of reviewing agency budget requests each year. By limiting this review of agency budgets to every other year, biennial appropriations could actually reduce the amount of oversight Congress conducts even if authorizing committees increased their efforts in this area.

As then CBO Director June O'Neill testified in 1997, "further Congressional oversight that is divorced from the purse strings may be less effective than oversight conducted through annual appropriations hearings linked to agency funding requests." (2) Limits on Discretionary Spending Heighten the Need for Annual Appropriations Whether Congress establishes new statutory caps on discretionary spending or sets discretionary spending limits through the Congressional budget resolution process, limits on discretionary spending are likely to remain rather constraining. Finding even modest funding for promising initiatives is likely to remain difficult. One way appropriators attempt to find resources to fund priority items is by closely scrutinizing the budgetary needs of each program on an annual basis. Occasionally, certain programs turn out not to need as much as they normally receive on an annual basis because of particular circumstances in a program in a given year. This can free up monies for other programs. For example, suppose a large transportation project that received funds last year has experienced delays in getting started. Last year’s appropriation may not yet have been fully spent, resulting in extra funds being available to the project this year.

Appropriators might decide to provide the project with a little less new funding this year, enabling themselves to shift some funding to another program or project with a temporary but pressing need, such as addressing Y2K computer problems. The ability to find money in one program to shift to another program with a greater need is dependent to some degree upon appropriators’ being able to conduct a detailed annual assessment of programmatic spending and needs. This would be less likely to occur under biennial budgeting. If extra money turned up in a particular project during a biennial budget cycle, there would be much less opportunity to shift these funds to a program with a more pressing need. In addition, the General Accounting Office has noted: "We have long advocated regular and rigorous Congressional oversight of federal programs....However, it is not necessary to change the budget and appropriations cycle to have effective Congressional oversight." (3) Will Biennial Budgeting Improve Program Planning? Another argument sometimes made for biennial budgeting is that it will provide greater certainty for, and thus better planning by, federal agencies and state and local governments.

Many of the programs for which certainty and advance planning are most important, however — such as most education programs — already are "forward-funded" (that is, funded a year in advance). Forward-funding does provide for more certainty and advance planning, but if it is desirable to expand the list of forward-funded programs, that can be done without moving the entire federal budget to biennial budgeting. State Actions to Drop Biennial Budgeting States often are referred to as "laboratories of democracy" and their experiences are studied for clues to improving federal government performance. Yet states have a clear pattern of abandoning biennial budgeting and moving to annual budgeting, rather than moving in the other direction. As Lawton Chiles observed a decade ago, some 44 states used biennial budgeting in 1940, but fewer than half that number do now. Most of the states still using biennial budgeting are small or medium-sized states. Pressures to revise the budget during the two-year period will be strong, likely leading to frequent budget changes and to supplemental bills on a much larger scale than in the past. The experience of the larger states is essentially one of having tried biennial budgeting and dropped it in favor of annual budgeting.

The GAO has reported that over the past three decades, the number of states that have moved from biennial to annual budgeting is nearly four times the number that have moved from annual to biennial budgets. The GAO has written that according to officials in states that changed to annual budgeting, "reasons for doing so included gaining greater accuracy in estimating revenues and financial needs, improving legislative control over budgetary matters, and being better able to respond to rapid changes in revenues and program needs." (4) There may be a lesson here. If biennial budgeting was tried and found wanting by large state governments given the responsibilities they shoulder, is it likely to prove appropriate for an entity with the far more extensive domestic and international responsibilities of the U.S. government? In short, the disadvantages of biennial budgeting are likely to outweigh the advantages. The apparent drawbacks are sufficiently serious that if federal policymakers wish to pursue biennial budgeting, the procedure should first be tested on an experimental basis with a limited number of budget accounts, as the GAO has suggested.

(See box on page 3.) Another possibility worth exploring may be to institute biennial budget resolutions but maintain annual appropriations; if new, realistic discretionary spending caps are established several years in advance, biennial budget resolutions may be a possibility. A decision to switch the entire federal government to both biennial budget resolutions and biennial appropriations bills, however, is premature. It would appear to be unwise to adopt such a proposal until it has been demonstrated that the serious questions surrounding biennial budgeting can be satisfactorily addressed. To access the PDF files, right-click on the underlined text, click "Save Link As," download to your directory, and open document in Adobe Acrobat Reader. End Notes: 1. See "Issues in Biennial Budget Proposals," Testimony of Susan J. Irving before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, GAO, July 24, 1996. 2. Statement of CBO Director June E. O'Neill on S.261, The Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, submitted to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, April 23, 1997.

Question: If something is ‘Biennial’, how often does it occur?
Answer: Every two years