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PART I. INTRODUCTION

• Background
• Changes From Current Practice
• 1986 Report
• Authorizations Pending--99th Congress, Second Session

PART II. APPENDIXES

• Appendix A. Authorizations Pending Before the 99th Congress, Second Session, Pending Bills and Expiring Authorizations Listed by House Committee
• Appendix B. Authorizations Pending Before the 99th Congress, Second Session, Pending Bills and Expiring Authorizations Listed by Senate Committee
• Appendix C. Summary of Authorizing Legislation With Budgetary Impact Expiring Between January 1, 1986 and September 30, 1987
• Appendix D. Public Laws With Budgetary Impact Enacted But Not Printed

The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to report to the Congress on unauthorized appropriations and expiring legislation. Section 221(b) of the Act amends the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 as follows:

(b) Additional Reporting Requirement--Section 202(f) of such Act is further amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraph:

"(3) On or before January 15 of each year, the Director, after consultation with the appropriate committees of the House and the Senate, shall submit to the Congress a report listing (A) all programs and activities funded during the fiscal year ending September 30 of that calendar year for which authorizations for appropriations have not been enacted for that fiscal year, and (B) all programs and activities for which no authorizations for appropriations have been enacted for the fiscal year beginning October 1 of that calendar year."

The conference report states that the purpose of this requirement is to help the Congress use the early months of the year to adopt authorizations that must be in place before the thirteen regular appropriations can be considered.

Background

Section 221 (b) establishes a legal requirement for CBO to carry out functions that, for the most part, it currently performs, either at the request of the Budget Committees or to support its other functions.

In 1975, at the request of the House and Senate Budget Committees, CBO began collecting data relating authorizations to the funding budget accounts. Over the intervening years the types of data collected and the level of detail have been revised periodically to meet the needs of the Congress.

Data on authorizations were originally required to identify the budgetary jurisdiction of the various committees. Subsequently, the focus shifted to expiring authorizations to highlight legislation where action was required prior to appropriations. CBO currently tracks each expiring section of law and the related budget accounts. For the first several years, the data were collected once a year and provided to the Budget Committees, which distributed the information to the Authorizing and Appropriations Committees as background materials for their "views and estimates"--the March 15th reports. CBO now maintains data on expiring authorizations updated on an ongoing basis current with the most recently printed public laws, and provides reports to the Budget Committees and others upon request.

CBO also maintains data on items in the President's budget request requiring authorization prior to appropriations, as part of its budget score-keeping. The budget document identifies those items (programs and activities) for which the President requests budget authority that require authorization. CBO tracks the legislation--authorization bills--for these items through the legislative process. When CBO last published scorekeeping reports, a table was included showing the current status of required authorizations. While the information is still maintained, it has not been published in the last several years.

Changes From Current Practice

Section 221(b) expands and revises CBO's approach to these functions in the following manner:

• The report is to be filed by January 15th;
  
  
• CBO is required to identify programs and activities that were funded--appropriations made--for which authorizations have not been enacted;
  
  
• CBO is required to list "programs and activities"--which involves more detail and a larger volume of information, than currently maintained;
  
  
• CBO is required to consult with the appropriate committees of the House and the Senate;
  
  
• CBO is required to report to the Congress, rather than the Budget Committees.

These changes from current practice present some difficulty in meeting the requirements of section 221(b) fully in 1986. First, complete data for authorizations that are required during the second session of the 99th Congress will not be available by the January 15 submission date. The President's February 5 budget submission will identify items for which the President is proposing authorizing legislation. Some legislation enacted at the end of the first session of the 99th Congress has not yet been printed as slip laws, the earliest comprehensive form of enacted laws, and therefore some expiring authorizations have not been identified.

CBO currently tracks pending authorizations, but does not systematically review appropriations bills to identify unauthorized items. To the extent the pending authorizations bills that have not been enacted are for ongoing programs, CBO assumes that these programs have been funded--either in the regular appropriation bills or the continuing resolutions. CBO does not currently review each appropriation bill to identify unauthorized programs and activities. CBO identification of pending authorizations, therefore, meets the requirements to identify unauthorized appropriations to a limited extent. Prior to submitting the 1987 report, CBO will develop the systems necessary to respond fully to the requirement to identify unauthorized appropriations.

CBO's existing tracking efforts focus on bills and laws, which are the basis for the decisions made by the Congress, rather than on "programs and activities." These tracking efforts will have to be expanded, where appropriate to identify "programs and activities" the Committees wish to consider. Finally, the December 12th enactment date for P.L. 99-177 has prevented any significant consultation with the appropriate committees on the development of the 1986 report.

1986 Report

In order to meet the intent of the conferees to provide the Congress with assistance in scheduling legislation, CBO is submitting an interim report on January 15th, which will be based on information available on January 10, 1986. A final report, including complete listings, will be submitted as soon as possible after the receipt of the President's budget, approximately the end of February. The 1986 reports include listings of authorization bills and expiring public laws-the level of detail currently maintained by CBO.

For future reports, CBO will expect to consult with the appropriate committees to identify "programs and activities" that it would be useful to track separately. The earlier receipt of the President's budget should make more timely submission of complete reports possible.

Authorizations Pending--99th Congress, Second Session

The body of this report consists of four appendixes listing authorizations pending before the 99th Congress during its second session. Appendix A lists authorization bills and expiring authorizations pending before House authorizing committees. Appendix B provides a comparable list for Senate authorizing committees. Both Appendix A and Appendix B show CBO's estimate of costs and the current status of the legislation. Appendix C lists public laws with expiring authorizations, identifies the committees of jurisdiction, the affected budget accounts, and detailed legal citations for the expiring provisions of law. Appendix C is a computer listing sorted by sequence of public laws. Appendix D provides a listing of bills that have been enacted, but have not yet been reveiwed to identify expiring authorizations.

CBO's interim report identifies 187 bills pending or expiring. Table 1 shows the composition of these bills by their estimated budget cost. The cost categories are the groupings used by CBO in tracking its cost estimates. Forty-two percent of the bills are for relatively small programs and activities--less than $50 million. Just over 20 percent are for large programs and activities, those over $500 million. The remainder fall between these two groupings or are indefinite.

Tables 2 and 3 show the distribution of required legislative activity by committee of jurisdiction of the House and Senate, respectively. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has the largest number of authorizations pending with 35, followed by Merchant Marine and Fisheries with 24, Interior and Insular Affairs with 19, and Education and Labor with 18. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has 36 bills or expiring public laws pending, the Committee on Labor and Human Resources has 26, and the Committee on Environment and Public Works has 14.

Tables 4 and 5 list the major--greater than $500 million--pending authorizations and public laws with expiring provisions, respectively. Table 4 is organized in sequence of bill numbers; Table 5 in sequence of public law numbers.

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