From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms


A chart of accounts (and technical guidance) established to support the consistent recording of financial events as well as the preparation of standard external reports required by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of the Treasury. Agencies are required by law (31 U.S.C. § 3512) to “implement and maintain financial management systems that comply substantially with,” among other things, the Standard General Ledger. It contains two complete and separate, but integrated, self-balancing sets of accounts–budgetary and proprietary.
Budgetary accounts are used to recognize and track budget approval and execution, whereas proprietary accounts are used to recognize and track assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses.
The Standard General Ledger is reproduced in the Treasury Financial Manual “Standard General Ledger Supplement,” available at https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/ref/ussgl/ussgl_home.htm.
More
- “Office of Management and Budget (OMB): An Overview,” CRS Report RS21665 (45-page PDF
).
- “Federal Financial Reporting: An Overview,” CRS Report R42975 (31-page PDF
)
- “Federal Financial Management Reform: Past Initiatives and Future Prospects,” CRS Report R40610 (43-page PDF
)
- “Federal Agency Performance and Accountability Reports (PARs): Content and Access,” CRS Report RL33825 (14-page PDF
)
- “OMB’s Financial Management Line of Business Initiative: Background, Issues, and Observations,” CRS Report RL33765 (17-page PDF
)
- “General Management Laws: A Compendium,” CRS Report RL30795 (401-page PDF
)
Courses
- Congressional Operations Briefing – Capitol Hill Workshop
- Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
- Writing for Government and Business: Critical Thinking and Writing
- Custom, On-Site Training
- Congressional Operations Poster, with Federal Budget Process Flowchart
- Federal Budgeting, a Five-Course series on CD
- Congress, the Legislative Process, and the Fundamentals of Lawmaking Series, a Nine-Course series on CD
Publications

The Federal Budget Process 2E

Pocket Constitution

Citizen’s Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials: A Guide for Citizen Lobbyists and Grassroots Advocates

Congressional Procedure
CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net
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