Note: recent developments on budget resolutions are displayed on the Home page.
Background on Budget Resolutions
The Senate and House Budget Committees – using the President’s Budget request, information from their own hearings, views and estimates from other committees of Congress, and projections from the Congressional Budget Office – draft their respective versions of a “Congressional Budget Resolution” in a series of working meetings known as committee “mark-ups.”
The Budget Resolution does not become a law and therefore is not presented to the President for signature. Rather, it is a congressional blueprint to guide subsequent action on specific spending and revenue measures.
The budget resolution, as a blueprint to guide subsequent action on spending and revenue measures, includes the following:
- Enforceable spending aggregates (new budget authority and outlays) and revenue floors for the upcoming budget year, and planning levels for at least the ensuing four fiscal years;
- A nonbinding distribution of new budget authority and outlays for all covered years among the 20 spending categories known as budget functions;
- On-budget deficit (or surplus) levels projected to result from the spending and revenue aggregates;
- Outlays and revenues for the Social Security insurance trust funds, displayed separately because the trust funds are off-budget;
- Administrative expenses for the U.S Postal Service (which is also off-budget);
- Total public debt and debt-held-by-the-public levels estimated to result from the budget resolution’s spending, revenue, and deficit levels;
- (In the Conference Report accompanying the budget resolution): Enforceable allocations of spending to each committee of the House and Senate, including a lump-sum to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for all “discretionary” spending, and direct (mandatory) spending allocations to authorizing committees;
- Optional: “budget reconciliation instructions” directing revenue-raising and authorizing committees to report legislation making programmatic changes that achieve specified dollar amounts of revenue, direct spending, or deficit changes to programs within their jurisdictions, for inclusion in a combined reconciliation bill;
- Optional: “budget reconciliation instructions” to the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees to report changes to the debt limit;
- Optional: special procedures to enforce the budget resolution;
- Optional: budget resolution “reserve funds”—sometimes called contingency funds—to permit the Budget Committees to make adjustments in budget resolution aggregates and committee allocations to accommodate legislation on a specified subject that meets certain conditions (usually deficit-neutrality);
- Optional: non-binding declaratory statements usually in the form of “sense of the House,” “sense of the Senate,” or “sense of the Congress,” and
- Optional: displays of Federal retirement trust fund balances.
Background on Deeming Resolutions
In years when the House and Senate have not reached agreement on a Budget Resolution, the House and Senate have sometimes adopted “deeming resolutions” to serve in place of an annual budget resolution for the purposes of establishing enforceable budget levels for the upcoming fiscal year.
For additional background on Budget Resolutions, Deeming Resolutions, Budget Reconciliation, and the Budget Process see TRILLIONS: A Primer on Federal Spending, Taxes, the U.S. Debt Ceiling, and Fiscal Law
Historical Database: Budget Resolutions, Deeming Resolutions, Reconciliation Bills
*If this document has not yet been uploaded to Congress.gov, you will find it at https://congressional.proquest.com/congressional or you may find it at the following public sites: https://govinfo.gov or https://books.google.com/advanced_book_search?hl=en.
^Notation indicates a committee report associated with an earlier version of the budget resolution for that fiscal year.
[1] Beginning with the upcoming (budget) year.
[2] This column displays “deeming” resolutions (or similar provisions in bills) that are adopted for fiscal years in which Congress did not complete action on a concurrent resolution on the budget, or in which the budget resolution was late.
[3] “Reserve funds” refer to establish procedures to revise budget levels (aggregates and committee allocations) for specified legislation if a condition is met (such as being deficit neutral or upon enactment of authorizing legislation). For additional information on reserve funds see Appendix I.
[4] Declaratory provisions refers to “Sense of Congress,” “Sense of Senate,” “Sense of House of Representatives,” or “Policy Statement” provisions.
[5] As of October 1, 2022
[6] For background, see: https://budget.house.gov/publications/report/fy23-deeming-resolution-supporting-appropriations-process#:~:text=The%20deeming%20resolution%2C%20or%20%E2%80%9Cdeemer%2C%E2%80%9D%20supports%20President%20Biden%E2%80%99s,a%209%20percent%20increase%20from%20FY22%20enacted%20levels.
[7] For note on conference action, see “Budget Resolutions” note at: https://crsreports.congress.gov/AppropriationsStatusTable?id=2022.
[8] For note on conference action, see “Budget Resolutions” note at: https://crsreports.congress.gov/AppropriationsStatusTable?id=2021.
[9] Beginning with the upcoming (budget) year.
[10] This column displays “deeming” resolutions (or similar provisions in bills) that are adopted for fiscal years in which Congress did not complete action on a concurrent resolution on the budget, or in which the budget resolution was late.
[11] “Reserve funds” refer to establish procedures to revise budget levels (aggregates and committee allocations) for specified legislation if a condition is met (such as being deficit neutral or upon enactment of authorizing legislation).
[12] Declaratory provisions refers to “Sense of Congress,” “Sense of Senate,” “Sense of House of Representatives,” or “Policy Statement” provisions.
[13] Conference report on S.Con.Res. 95 was not considered by the Senate. See https://crsreports.congress.gov/AppropriationsStatusTable?id=2005. In the absence of an agreement on the FY2005 budget resolution, the House and Senate separately adopted deeming resolutions for budget enforcement purposes.
[14] Beginning with the upcoming (budget) year.
[15] This column displays “deeming” resolutions (or similar provisions in bills) that are adopted for fiscal years in which Congress did not complete action on a concurrent resolution on the budget, or in which the budget resolution was late.
[16] “Reserve funds” refer to establish procedures to revise budget levels (aggregates and committee allocations) for specified legislation if a condition is met (such as being deficit neutral or upon enactment of authorizing legislation).
[17] Declaratory provisions refers to “Sense of Congress,” “Sense of Senate,” “Sense of House of Representatives,” or “Policy Statement” provisions.
[18] Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-193.
[19] Beginning with the upcoming (budget) year.
[20] This column displays “deeming” resolutions (or similar provisions in bills) that are adopted for fiscal years in which Congress did not complete action on a concurrent resolution on the budget, or in which the budget resolution was late.
[21] “Reserve funds” refer to establish procedures to revise budget levels (aggregates and committee allocations) for specified legislation if a condition is met (such as being deficit neutral or upon enactment of authorizing legislation).
[22] Declaratory provisions refers to “Sense of Congress,” “Sense of Senate,” “Sense of House of Representatives,” or “Policy Statement” provisions.
[23] Beginning with the upcoming (budget) year.
[24] This column displays “deeming” resolutions (or similar provisions in bills) that are adopted for fiscal years in which Congress did not complete action on a concurrent resolution on the budget, or in which the budget resolution was late.
[25] “Reserve funds” permit revision of budget levels (aggregates and committee allocations) for specified legislation if specified conditions are met (such as being deficit-neutral).
[26] Declaratory provisions refers to “Sense of Congress,” “Sense of Senate,” and “Sense of House of Representatives” provisions.
[27] Budget resolution conference report (S.Rept. 96-399) to accompany S.Con.Res. 36 was not adopted.