Priority Expenditures, Essay Example

U.S. federal government budgetary allocations

Since the 1980s, consistency in spending has been marked by appropriation measures in comparison to national deficit and not much else. Of the over $1.2 trillion annual budget, the largest pockets of expenditure within the U.S. Federal allocations budget any given year are dedicated to functional classification line items within those appropriations funds to general areas subject to resolutions by the Executive such as defense, international affairs, transportation and income security. Breakdown of the budget by each Joint Legislature committee and subcommittee furthers functional decision making.

Many of the thirteen appropriations subcommittees are dedicated issue bodies that work toward designated program funding of specific federal agencies administrations: commerce, justice, housing, NASA, veterans and states. Some proponents of reformation argue that continuity between Presidential resolution and the grounding of legislative subcommittee responsibilities in those spending functions would enhance targeted growth in broad public sector areas as heath, income security and transportation as advanced appropriations would be subject to rational systemization in the planning and implementation of those umbrella allocations throughout their respective agencies.

The Legislator budget committees authorize mandatory allocations to programs that will continue operating under existing formulas that were in place during and prior the 1980s. Reconciliation instructions that require committees to rewrite program to achieve a specified level of budgetary savings in Presidential resolutions are the exception.  Earmarked allocations to the House and Senate appropriations committees are then approved for discretionary spending allocations to the subcommittees. Audit of expenditures is conducted annually.

Advanced appropriations to things like schools and NASA preface actual allocations so that institutional planning might be achieved. As in the case of 2010, NASA allocations most advanced appropriations approximate or exceed agency requests so that adjustments made to the institutional budget are slight. Pre-designated spending has increased greatly since the 1980s. In 2004 for instance, appropriations were twelve times higher than U.S. federal government 1996 levels. Ultimately this means that formulaic measures applied to public spending are not at all as ad hoc as Americans might perceive.