ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how Congress controls federal spending and analyzes the procedures Congress used to achieve the budget reductions in 1981. It assesses the implications of these procedures for the likelihood of achieving further reductions. Once an authorization of appropriations has been passed, Congress funds the program by granting budget authority in appropriation acts. The budget authority is granted to an appropriation account rather than to a program or an authorization. Given the structure of federal spending, it is unlikely that major reductions can be made in the rate of domestic spending growth in the future unless Congress continues to use its reconciliation process. Congress has been unable or unwilling to control the growth of entitlement expenditures for two reasons: Many of the programs are very popular and the programs are shielded from movements to limit spending by their multiyear or permanent status.
