Describe the evolution of the government budget process
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Karachi School for Business & Leadership *
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Political Science
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Nov 24, 2024
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Running head:
BUDGET PROCESS
1
The Evolution of the Government Budget Process
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THE EVOLUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT BUDGET PROCESS
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The Evolution of the Government Budget Process
The federal government budget process has undergone significant changes in the US,
with most of the revolution influenced by the executive branch and Congress. The Congress and
executive branch are the primary pillars of initiating the budgetary process for the federal
government. The evolution of the budget process can be traced back to the early years when the
country relied on relatively informal. Government spending was determined by the defence, debt
servicing and other essential services (Swanson, 2022). However, the current form of budgetary
process is initiated by the executive leader, who is the president. For instance, the management
office of the president manages the budget by preparing it to cover administrative spending for
the respective year. The outline of the expenditure is then sent to the Congress for debate. On the
other hand, once they receive the president's proposed budget, Congress reviews the amendment
and passes the funding to start functioning in the country. The Congressional Budget Office helps
conduct independent analyses to aid Congress in assessing the budget proposals. The executive
and Congress form a conference committee with House of Representatives and Senate members
to evaluate the differences raised after reviewing the budget. After Congress has agreed with the
submitted budget, the president approves it by signing to become a law. In case of budget
suspension, it requires both the House and Senate to win two-thirds of the majority vote. Hence,
the connection between the executive branch and Congress in the US budget process is to hold
the government to keep its operations through funding.
Besides, both the executive and legislative organizations are involved in budget
implementation. The executive offices are responsible for initiating and overseeing the budget
process (Posner & Park, 2017). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) helps the
executive organization to ensure the budget proposed by the president is formulated and enacted.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT BUDGET PROCESS
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They review the budget requests and assist in setting the budgetary priorities. At the same time,
the Department of the Treasury helps the executive in the execution of the budget by managing
government accounts, funds disbursement, and collection of revenues. Contrarily, legislative
organizations include House and Senate budget committees, congressional budget offices, and
appropriations committees. The proposal of the budget by the executive is followed by the
formation of committees from the Senate and House to review how it was developed, including
the areas that were under or over-funded. Also, the committee helps check the funding model
adopted by each agency to draft the resolution before signing it into law. Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) are responsible for sharing the reviews with Congress and non-partisan economics
to analyze it and determine its impact on the fiscal year.
Generally, the evolution of the budget process discussed in the paper reflects the ongoing
efforts in the US to ensure a balance in the responsibilities between the executive and legislative
branches. The set systems are meant to check and balance the budgetary process while
monitoring the various perspectives depending on the resources available. As the country
expands, the economy grows, implying that the budgetary process should be reviewed and
analyzed to avoid shutting down due to delayed presentation to Congress for discussion or
experiencing a deficit in funding some of the essential agencies and programs.
References
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THE EVOLUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT BUDGET PROCESS
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Posner, P. L., & Park, C.-K. (2017). Role of the legislature in the budget process.
OECD Journal
on Budgeting
,
7
(3), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1787/budget-v7-art15-en
Swanson, P. (2022). The Federal Government Budget: Instrument of Fiscal Policy.
An
Introduction to Capitalism
, 269–283. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203100325-29