This report identifies and summarizes these and other rules and directives affecting committee powers, authority, activities, and operations.

House Rules, especially Rules X-XIII, govern the authority and operations of its committees and subcommittees. This report identifies and summarizes these and other rules and directives affecting committee powers, authority, activities, and operations.

Farm commodity programs were a product of the Great Depression. This report discusses the history of farm commodity legislation. Since 1933, Congress has required the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to administer a variety of programs providing price support and income protection for the nations farmers.

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This report discusses the implications of cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment in the context of congressional and administrative decision-making structures. It identifies constraints on flexible decision-making and some implications of trying to overcome them.

Since May of 1998, Russia has been caught in the latest, and likely the most serious, in a series of economic crises. The crisis came to a head on August 17, 1998, when the government of then-Premier Sergei Kiriyenko abandoned its defense of a strong ruble exchange rate against the dollar, defaulted on government domestic debt forcing its restructuring, and placed a 90-day moratorium on commercial external debt payments. Those actions led to Yeltsin's dismissal of Kiriyenko on August 23, replaced, after a political standoff with the Duma, by a more leftward-leaning government led by Premier Yevgennij Primakov. The August crisis also lowered Russians' standard of living and has seriously set back Russia's efforts toward establishing a market economy, perhaps for years to come.

The federal government has provided large financial resources in support of commercial aviation since 1918. This report details the amounts and types of federal spending that have occurred over this 80 year period. The report also discusses some of the issues that have shaped federal policy toward aviation and identifies some of the issues likely to affect federal spending in the future.

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Baselines and scorekeeping are an integral part of the federal budget process, providing Congress and the President with a framework for making and enforcing budgetary decisions. A baseline serves as a benchmark for federal budget decisions. While the Office of Management and Budget (0MB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) create different baselines, their baselines project federal spending, revenue, and budget surplus or deficit amounts that would occur if existing budget policies were left unchanged. Scorekeeping is the process by which the budgetary impact of proposed and enacted budget policies is measured; it assists Congress and the President in making and enforcing budgetary decisions

In its most elemental form, the federal budget is a comprehensive accounting of the government’s spending, revenues, and borrowing. This fact sheet provides a brief overview of the basic terminology and concepts used in the federal budget process.

Budget reconciliation is an optional two-step process Congress may use to assure compliance with the direct spending, revenue, and debt-limit levels set forth in budget resolutions.

The annual budget resolution sets forth Congress's budget plan for a period of at least five fiscal years. It includes total levels of spending, revenues, and the debt limit for each of the fiscal years covered.

The Congressional Budget Act (CBA) of 1974 (P.L. 93-344), as amended, establishes the congressional budget process, which coordinates the legislative activities on the budget resolution, appropriations bills, reconciliation legislation, revenue measures, and other budgetary legislation. Section 300 of this act provides a timetable (see Table 1) so that Congress may complete its work on the budget by the start of the fiscal year on October 1.

Consideration of a concurrent budget resolution is governed by special procedures in the House and Senate. Although the procedures of each chamber differ, they serve generally to expedite consideration of the budget resolution.

This report provides information about the Debt-Limit Legislation in the Congressional Budget Process. The gross federal debt consists of the debt held by the public plus the debt held by government accounts.

The gross federal debt consists of the debt held by the public plus the debt held by government accounts. Almost all of the gross federal debt is subject to a public debt limit, as set forth in statute (31 U.S.C. 3101).This report considers legislation needed to change the public debt limit.

Discretionary spending limits are statutory caps on the level of budget authority and outlays determined through the annual appropriations process. They were initially established by the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) of 1990 (Title XIII of P.L. 101-508) as part of an agreement between Congress and President George Bush to reduce the deficit. Twice since, they were extended to enforce agreements between Congress and President Bill Clinton, most recently to achieve a surplus.

This report discusses the federal fiscal year which is the accounting period of the federal government.

The Congressional Budget Act (CBA) of 1974 (Titles I-IX of P.L. 93-344), as amended, established the concurrent budget resolution as the centerpiece of the congressional budget process. This report discusses the budget resolution, which provides the framework for subsequent legislative action on the annual appropriations bills, revenue measures, debt-limit legislation, reconciliation legislation (if required), and any other budgetary legislation.

The pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules in the federal budget process require that new direct spending and revenue legislation be deficit neutral. The net effect of all such legislation enacted during a session must not cause a net increase in the budget deficit (or a net decrease in the budget surplus). If direct spending or revenue legislation causes an increase in the deficit, it must be offset by an equivalent amount of direct spending reductions, revenue increases, or a combination of both.

Sequestration is the cancellation of budgetary resources for the purpose of enforcing statutory budget limits and pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) requirements. This process is triggered automatically when these statutory limits or PAYGO rules have been violated as a result of legislative actions.

Sequestration--the automatic across-the-board cancellation of budgetary resources for the purpose of enforcing budgetary goals--was first established by the 1985 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act (Title II of P.L. 99-177). Section 254 of this act, as amended, provides a timetable for sequestration actions.

This report discusses the FY2000 budget, which includes several energy tax incentives intended to reduce greenhouse gasses linked to possible global warming.

From Summary: "This report traces the changes and derivation of the major amendments to the provisions of federal law authorizing the appointment of what is now called an "independent counsel."