Senate Budget Committee - Democratic Staff Website

Fact Sheet on Senate Budget Process: 98-768 GOV

The President's Budget: Requirement for a Mid-Session Review

Robert Keith, Specialist in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
September 14, 1998

Background

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 (P.L. 67-13) established for the first time the requirement that the President annually submit a budget to Congress. The President's budget, referred to officially as the Budget of the United States Government, consists of estimates of spending, revenues, borrowing, and debt; policy and legislative recommendations; detailed estimates of the financial operations of federal agencies and programs; and other information supporting the President's recommendations. Initially, the 1921 act required the President to include in his budget information for the upcoming fiscal year, as well as for the most recently completed and current fiscal years.

Under the 1921 act, the deadline for submission was set as "the first day of each regular session" of Congress. The deadline was changed in 1950, 1985, and 1990, but always required that the budget be submitted either in January or February. Under current law (31 U.S.C. 1105(a)), the President is required to submit his annual budget on or after the first Monday in January, but no later than the first Monday in February.

As soon as the President's budget is received, the House and Senate begin working on the annual appropriations bills, revenue measures, and other budgetary legislation. The aim of the two chambers is to complete legislative action on the budget by the beginning of the fiscal year later in the session, but sometimes such action is not completed until weeks or months after the fiscal year has begun.

Origin of the Mid-Session Review

For nearly half a century after the 1921 act took effect, Presidents submitted their annual budgets to Congress in January or February but were not required to update the budget submissions later in the session. As the federal budget became larger, more complex, and more dynamic, Congress felt a greater need for more extensive and updated budgetary information from the President. This view was expressed by the House Rules Committee in its report on the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-510):

Very often, as the appropriations process moves forward, conditions relating to the President's budget change. Frequently, Members are not fully informed about such changes and what effect they will have on the total Budget. No official Executive pronouncements are made subsequent to the Budget submission; no supplementary budgetary information is presented; no firm foundation except the January Budget is available in the Congress. This inexact, imprecise, and haphazard system must be substantially improved if the Congress is to analyze effectively the President's program and, with any degree of accuracy, forecast the expenditure and revenue levels of the National Government.(1)

The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 made several changes in the federal budget process in response to Congress's need for more budgetary information from the President, chiefly by requiring that his budget cover not just the upcoming fiscal year but the four ensuing fiscal years. In addition, Section 221(b) of the act required the President to submit to Congress an update of his budget by June 1, beginning in 1972 (31 U.S.C. 1106). The update commonly is referred to as the mid-session review, but sometimes is referred to as the supplemental summary of the budget.

Subsequent Modifications and Concerns

Congress and the President have made two changes since 1970 pertinent to the requirement for a mid-session review. First, in conjunction with a change in the start of the fiscal year from July 1 to October 1, made by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-344), the deadline for submission of the mid-session review was changed from June 1 to July 15 (see Section 602 of the act; 88 Stat. 324).

The second change pertained to the budget enforcement procedures established on a temporary basis by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Title II of P.L. 99-177), commonly referred to as the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. Under Section 241 of the act, the President was required in the preparation of his annual budget to adhere to statutory deficit targets that were enforced by sequestration. Section 242 of the act (99 Stat. 1063) extended the same constraint to the preparation of the mid-session review. The restriction expired at the end of FY1995, along with the deficit targets themselves.

During the past decade or so, the timeliness of the submission of the mid-session review has been raised as an issue.(2) There is no sanction for missing the deadline, but some Members of Congress express concern that Presidents sometimes unduly delay (or accelerate) the submission of updated budgetary information in order to influence congressional action on budgetary legislation. The mid-session review has been submitted on time in only six of the last 20 years. The submission was especially tardy for FY1985-1988 (when it was submitted in August) and FY1994 and FY1998 (when it was submitted in September). In FY1999, it was submitted unusually early (in May).

1. H.Rept. 91-1215, to accompany H.R. 17654 (in U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News, 91st Cong., 2nd sess. (1970), vol. 3, page 4427).

2. This issue is addressed in: The President's Budget: Timing of the Mid-Session Review, by Robert Keith, CRS Report 98-605 GOV, July 10, 1998, 5 pages.