Pork anyone?

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. ~ U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 9


That’s where we come in. People submit requests, we prioritize, fill out forms, and submit them to the Appropriations Committee. It's a super long process, requiring tons of paperwork and long hours that really don't amount to much. The reason being, Congress hasn't approved a budget in a while. This is where you might spit out your drink all over the computer screen and say "WTF?!!!" I couldn't tell you when the last budget was approved, but I can tell you that we're running on a continuing resolution. This means that all agencies and programs are being funded at the level the last appropriations bill was approved. Word on the street is that FY 2009 will probably be another CR. That's just the word, but things can change...

We didn't put in as many long days as I had expected. I think we paced ourselves pretty well and had all hands on deck to split the load. It's quite the interesting process, and I can honestly say that it can be a very frustrating process. As staff members, we are at the mercy of the member, the various approps subcommittees, and the various organizations submitting requests.

We did a last minute request on Tuesday, the day before they were due, for the Financial Services subcommittee. We sought out the project because we rarely get any submissions for Financial Services. In fact, aside from this one, there were no other FS requests. We waited around the office for awhile because of technical difficulties. It was more like operational difficulties, but we finally got the request and it was submitted on Tuesday evening, signifying our successful attempt of submitting approps on time, and with a day to spare.

So where do we go from here? Not sure what happens when the Approps committee gets their hot little hands on our requests, but they'll probably mull over the mountains of paper for several months. Just think, we were a little overwhelmed by the stack of requests our office received. The Approps Committee has to deal with that times 435. That's a lot of requests. A LOT!!! Depending on if we get a budget or another CR determines the outcome for a lot of these programs. But we won't know until fall 08. Chalk this up to a very long and very daunting process. Thankfully, where approps are concerned, my work here is done.

P.S. Anyone, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of the budgeting process. The above summation is a recollection from a West Wing episode. Sad, but true.