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Backdoor spending authority (view source)
Revision as of 05:10, January 13, 2013
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From the perspective of the appropriations committees, funding by these forms of spending authority slips away from their control through legislative back doors. The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 allowed older forms of backdoor spending to be grandfathered in but attempted to give the appropriations committees some control over [[new spending]], or new borrowing and contract authority. ([http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/651 2 U.S.C. § 651}]
From the perspective of the appropriations committees, funding by these forms of spending authority slips away from their control through legislative back doors. The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 allowed older forms of backdoor spending to be grandfathered in but attempted to give the appropriations committees some control over [[new spending]], or new borrowing and contract authority. ([http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/651 2 U.S.C. § 651}]
==Origins and issues==
==Origins and issues==
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 originally was intended to limit and reform backdoor authority, by requiring new spending authorities or entitlements to go through the appropriations process.<ref>http://www.gao.gov/assets/210/202440.html</ref><ref>http://appropriations.house.gov/about/</ref> By 2010 however, [[President Obama]]'s Simpson-Bowles Commission reported the that tax code had become riddled with $1.1 trillion (roughly equal to annual projected deficits) in backdoor spending as hidden "[[tax expenditure]]s."<ref>[http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/sites/fiscalcommission.gov/files/documents/TheMomentofTruth12_1_2010.pdf The Moment of Truth: Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform]. December 2010. The White House. P. 29, pdf.</ref>
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 originally was intended to limit and reform backdoor authority, by requiring new spending authorities or entitlements to go through the appropriations process.<ref>http://www.gao.gov/assets/210/202440.html</ref><ref>http://appropriations.house.gov/about/</ref> By 2010 however, [[President Obama]]'s Simpson-Bowles Commission reported the that tax code had become riddled with $1.1 trillion (roughly equal to annual projected deficits) in backdoor spending as hidden "[[tax expenditure]]s."<ref>[http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/sites/fiscalcommission.gov/files/documents/TheMomentofTruth12_1_2010.pdf The Moment of Truth: Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform]. December 2010. The White House. P. 29, pdf.</ref>
=== Exceptions to statutory attempts to limit backdoor spending ===
There are many exceptions to this procedural rule. First, although this requirement is a law, the Speaker of the [[US House of Representatives]] has ruled that it can be waived if the House adopts a recommendation to do so from the House Rules Committee.<ref>121 Cong. Rec. 7677, 94th Cong. 1st Sess., Mar. 20, 1975 (ruling by Speaker Carl Albert [Okla.]).</ref> Second, it applies only to consideration of new legislation after 1975. Third, broad categories involving gifts and trust funds were exempt.<ref>2 U.S.C. § 651(c)</ref>
==See also==
==See also==