From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Federal Fund Accounts

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Budgetary accounts composed of moneys collected and spent by the federal government other than those designated as trust funds. Federal fund accounts include general, special, public enterprise, and intragovernmental fund accounts. (See also Standard General Ledger Chart of Accounts.)

General Fund Accounts. Accounts in the U.S. Treasury holding all federal money not allocated by law to any other fund account.

General Fund Receipt Account. A receipt account credited with all collections that are not earmarked by law for another account for a specific purpose. These collections are presented in the President’s budget as either governmental (budget) receipts or offsetting receipts. These include taxes, customs duties, and miscellaneous receipts.

General Fund Expenditure Account. An appropriation account established to record amounts appropriated by law for the general support of federal government activities and the subsequent expenditure of these funds. It includes spending from both annual and permanent appropriations.

Intragovernmental Fund Accounts. Expenditure accounts authorized by law to facilitate financing transactions primarily within and between federal agencies.

Intragovernmental Revolving Fund Account. An appropriation account authorized to be credited with collections from other federal agencies’ accounts that are earmarked to finance a continuing cycle of business-type operations, including working capital funds, industrial funds, stock funds, and supply funds. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), collections of intragovernmental revolving fund accounts are derived primarily from within the government. For example, the franchise fund operations within several agencies provide common administrative services to federal agencies on a fee-for-service basis. (See also Working Capital Fund.)

Management Fund Account. An account established by the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) that is authorized by law to credit collections from two or more appropriations to finance activity not involving a continuing cycle of business-type operations. Such accounts do not generally own a significant amount of assets, such as supplies, equipment, or loans, nor do they have a specified amount of capital provided–a corpus.

Consolidated Working Fund Accounts are a subset of management funds. These are special working funds established under the authority of Section 601 of the Economy Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 1535, 1536) to receive advance payments from other agencies or accounts. Consolidated working fund accounts are not used to finance the work directly but only to reimburse the appropriation or fund account that will finance the work to be performed. Amounts in consolidated working fund accounts are available for the same periods as those of the accounts advancing the funds. Consolidated working fund accounts are shown as separate accounts on the books of Treasury but are not separately identified in the President’s budget. Transactions of these accounts are included in the presentation of the appropriation or fund account actually performing the service or providing the materials.

Public Enterprise Revolving Fund Account. A type of revolving fund that conducts cycles of businesslike operations, mainly with the public, in which it charges for the sale of products or services and uses the proceeds to finance its spending, usually without requirement for annual appropriations. Most government corporations are financed by public enterprise funds. (See Revolving Fund.)

Special Fund Accounts. Federal fund accounts earmarked by law for a specific purpose.

Special Fund Receipt Account. A receipt account credited with collections that are earmarked by law but included in the federal funds group rather than classified as trust fund collections. These collections are presented in the President’s budget as either governmental (budget) receipts or offsetting receipts. (See also Earmarking.)

Special Fund Expenditure Account. An appropriation account established to record appropriations, obligations, and outlays financed by the proceeds of special fund receipts. (See also Earmarking.)

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From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Earmarking / Earmarks

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Earmarking: Either of the following:
(1) Dedicating collections by law for a specific purpose or program. Earmarked collections include trust fund receipts, special fund receipts, intragovernmental receipts, and offsetting collections credited to appropriation accounts. These collections may be classified as budget receipts, proprietary receipts, or reimbursements to appropriations.

(2) Designating any portion of a lump-sum amount for particular purposes by means of legislative language. Sometimes, “earmarking” is colloquially used to characterize directions included in congressional committee reports but not in the legislation itself, i.e., “directed congressional appropriations.”

Also called “pork” and “bringing home the bacon”.

Also see Special Fund Accounts under Federal Fund Accounts; Trust Fund Accounts; Offsetting Collections under Collections; Proprietary Receipts from the Public under Collections; Committee Allocation; § 7.81, Limitations, Earmarks, and General Provisions, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• “Earmarks still have friends in high places,” by Jonathan Allen, Politico, May 15, 2012
• “Earmarks to Return if GOP Porkers Get Their Way,” by Drew Johnson, Breitbart, April 8, 2012
• “Senatorial Tragedy: ‘Without congressional earmarks, we find ourselves at the mercy of the bureaucrats…’,” by Nick Gillespie, Hit & Run, April 3, 2012
• Select Committee on Earmark Reform – House
• Earmark Reform – OpenCongress (Sunlight)
• Earmarks – OpenSecrets
• Congressional Pig Book – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)
• Earmarks Database – OMB
• “Banning Earmarks Effective or Mostly for Show?” Hobnob Blog, November 22, 2010
• Pork barrel ( i.e., “pork”) – Wikipedia
• Earmark – Wikipedia
• Porkbusters – Wikipedia

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• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
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From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Unanimous Consent

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Proceedings of the House or Senate and action on legislation often take place upon the unanimous consent of the chamber, whether or not a rule of the chamber is being violated. Unanimous consent is used to expedite floor action and frequently is used for routing procedural requests. See also Unanimous Consent Agreement.

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• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
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CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net

From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Reconciliation

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The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 provides for a “reconciliation” procedure for bringing existing tax and spending laws into conformity with ceilings enacted in the congressional budget resolutions. Under the procedure, Congress instructs designated legislative committees to approve measures adjusting revenues and expenditures by a certain amount. The committees have a deadline by which they must report the legislation, but they have the discretion of deciding what changes are to be made. The recommendations of the various committees are consolidated without change by the budget committees into an omnibus reconciliation bill, which the must be considered and approved by both houses of Congress. The orders to congressional committees to report recommendations for reconciliation bills are called reconciliation instructions, and they are contained in the budget resolution.

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From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Function / Functional Classification

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Categories of spending established for accounting purposes to keep track of specific expenditures. Each account is placed in the single function (such as national defense, agriculture, health, etc.) that best represents its major purpose, regardless of the agency administering the program. The functions do not correspond directly with appropriations or with the budgets of individual agencies. (See also Budget Resolution.)

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From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Adjourn

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Adjourn: Formal motion to end a day’s session of a chamber of Congress.

A motion to adjourn in the Senate (or a committee) ends that day’s session. Adjournment is not a recess. Because procedures are so strictly determined when a new legislative day is created, the Senate may recess rather than adjourn at the end of the previous day’s session. Recessing does not create a new legislative day. A legislative day continues until the Senate adjourns at the end of a daily session. When all business for a day has been completed, the Senate majority leader (or a designee) comes to the floor to announce that no further voting or business is expected for that day. The majority leader also normally announces the anticipated schedule for the next session. The Senate at that point either recesses or adjourns, or allows other senators to speak as if in morning business. When all senators who wish to speak are finished, a senator will yield the floor. The presiding officer will announce that the Senate is in recess or has adjourned until the next scheduled session.

In the House, when the last special order is concluded, a member moves that the House adjourn. The gavel comes down, and the House adjourns for the day.

When either the House or Senate is in session, a flag flies over the respective chamber. If a chamber recesses rather than adjourns, the flag remains flying until the next adjournment.

Also see Adjourn for More than Three Days; Adjournment Sine Die; Adjournment to a Day and Time Certain; Legislative Day; Majority Leader; Recess; Terms and Sessions of Congress; § 5.30 Terms and Sessions of Congress, § 11.32 The Lantern and Flags, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• “Commonly Used Motions and Requests in the House of Representatives,” CRS Report RL32207
• “Voting and Quorum Procedures in the Senate,” CRS Report 96-452
• “The Legislative Process on the Senate Floor: An Introduction,” CRS Report 96-548

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From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Recess

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A temporary interruption of the Senate’s (or a committee’s) business. Generally, the Senate often recesses (rather than adjourns) at the end of each calendar day. Distinguished from adjournment, a recess does not interrupt unfinished business.

The rules in each chamber set forth certain matters to be taken up and disposed of at the beginning of each legislative day. The House usually adjourns from day to day. The Senate often recesses, thus meeting on the same legislative day for several calendar days or even weeks at a time.

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From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Pocket Veto

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The act of the president in withholding his approval of a bill after Congress has adjourned. When Congress is in session, a bill becomes law without the president’s signature if he does not act upon it within 10 days, excluding Sundays, from the time he gets it (U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 7). But if Congress adjourns sine die within that 10-day period, the bill will not become law even if the president does not formally veto it.

Also see Adjournment Sine Die; Congress by the Numbers; Veto; § 6.290 Presidential Action on Enacted Measures, § 6.292 Vetoes and Veto Overrides: Presidential Clout, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• “The Pocket Veto: Its Current Status,” CRS Report RL30909
• “The Presidential Veto and Congressional Procedure,” CRS Report 98-156
• “Regular Vetoes and Pocket Vetoes: An Overview,” CRS Report RS22188
• “Presidential Vetoes, 1789-Present: A Summary Overview,” CRS Report 98-148
• “Congressional Overrides of Presidential Vetoes,” CRS Report 98-157
• Pocket veto – Wikipedia

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From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Engrossed Bill / Engrossed Measure

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The final official copy of a bill as passed by one chamber, with the text as amended by floor action and certified by the clerk of the House or the secretary of the Senate. After a measure has been passed by one house, an engrossed version is transmitted to the other chamber. When a measure is received in the second chamber, it is either ordered “held at the desk” or referred to the appropriate committee.

If the second chamber, the recipient chamber, considers and passes the measure with changes, it returns it to the chamber of origin. The originating chamber has several options. It can accept the second chamber’s amendment, it can accept the second chamber’s amendment with a further amendment, or it can disagree with the other chamber’s amendment and request a conference. The second chamber can also request a conference immediately rather than returning the measure to the first chamber with an amendment. A chamber must possess the papers to request a conference. The papers are the engrossed measure (measure as passed by the first chamber), engrossed amendments (measure as passed by the second chamber), and messages of transmittal between the chambers. The second chamber’s engrossed version appears as an amendment or amendments to the first chamber’s measure. A public print might also be printed, incorporating the second chamber’s–almost always the Senate’s–amendment into the text of the measure.

The first page of an engrossed version contains just the measure number and the designation An Act rather than A Bill or A Resolution.

Also see Amendment; Conference Committee; Bills; Custody of the Papers; Enrolled Bill; Resolution; § 6.260 Reconciling Differences between House-Passed and Senate-Passed Legislation, § 6.270 Amendments between the Houses, § 9.60 Versions of Legislation, in Congressional Deskbook.

More

• “Engrossment, Enrollment, and Presentation of Legislation,” CRS Report 98-826
• “Resolving Legislative Differences in Congress: Conference Committees and Amendments Between the Houses,” CRS Report 98-696

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• Congressional Dynamics and the Legislative Process
• Congressional Briefing Conference – Capitol Hill Workshop
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Rise: In order only in the Committee of the Whole during the amendment stage, it has the effect of terminating or suspending debate on the pending matter.

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative and Congressional Terms. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill. Our legislative glossary is based on the Glossary in the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training in legislative and congressional operations, Washington research skills, advocacy and communication, critical thinking and writing, and the federal budget process. We also offer two Certificate programs: Certificate in Congressional Operations and the Certificate in Communication and Advocacy.

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Amendment Tree: Diagram showing the number and types of amendments to a measure permitted by the chamber. It also shows the relationship among the amendments, their degree or type, and the order in which they may be offered and the order in which they are voted on.

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative and Congressional Terms. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill. Our legislative glossary is based on the Glossary in the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training in legislative and congressional operations, Washington research skills, advocacy and communication, critical thinking and writing, and the federal budget process. We also offer two Certificate programs: Certificate in Congressional Operations and the Certificate in Communication and Advocacy.

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En Bloc Amendment: Several amendments offered as a group after obtaining unanimous consent.

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative and Congressional Terms. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill. Our legislative glossary is based on the Glossary in the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training in legislative and congressional operations, Washington research skills, advocacy and communication, critical thinking and writing, and the federal budget process. We also offer two Certificate programs: Certificate in Congressional Operations and the Certificate in Communication and Advocacy.

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Substitute Amendment: Amendment that replaces the entire text of a pending amendment.

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative and Congressional Terms. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill. Our legislative glossary is based on the Glossary in the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training in legislative and congressional operations, Washington research skills, advocacy and communication, critical thinking and writing, and the federal budget process. We also offer two Certificate programs: Certificate in Congressional Operations and the Certificate in Communication and Advocacy.

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Stage of Disagreement: Stage at which one chamber formally disagrees with an amendment proposed by the other chamber and insists on its own amendment. A measure generally cannot go to conference until this stage is reached.

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative and Congressional Terms. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill. Our legislative glossary is based on the Glossary in the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training in legislative and congressional operations, Washington research skills, advocacy and communication, critical thinking and writing, and the federal budget process. We also offer two Certificate programs: Certificate in Congressional Operations and the Certificate in Communication and Advocacy.

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Table/Lay on the Table: Prevents further consideration of a measure, amendment, or motion, thus killing it.

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative and Congressional Terms. Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms. Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill. Our legislative glossary is based on the Glossary in the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training in legislative and congressional operations, Washington research skills, advocacy and communication, critical thinking and writing, and the federal budget process. We also offer two Certificate programs: Certificate in Congressional Operations and the Certificate in Communication and Advocacy.

We show you how Washington and Congress work. ^TM