ABSTRACT
The first budget controls ever enacted for the new United States came in the 1789 law setting up the Treasury Department. The Antideficiency Act remains a core feature of budget and appropriations law, with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) charged with determining violations of the Act. Section 201 of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 directs the president to submit spending and revenue estimates to Congress each year. That provision is still the law, though Congress in 1990 fixed the budget submission date as not later than the first Monday in February, the current due date. The 1921 Act served the country relatively well until Congress under quite different circumstances passed a 1974 law to help it regain some control over the budget process. Section 202(f) of the law directed Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to submit each year a comprehensive budget outlook. Budget process legislation since 1974 has been by amendment to the Budget and Impoundment Act.
