The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
CRS-2
both houses generally require their Appropriations Committees to provide additional information, such as the following: * A cost estimate that provides a comparison of funding provided in the measure, except for continuing appropriations, with certain spending ceilings associated with the annual budget resolution (302(b) allocations); SA comparison of the text of statutes the committee proposes to amend or repeal with the proposed changes (the House also requires a description of the effect of any provision in a general appropriations bill' that directly or indirectly changes the application of existing law); and * A statement identifying unauthorized appropriations. Procedures are available in both the Senate and House to waive these rules. At the direction of a subcommittee chair, committee reports are typically prepared by the staff of the Senate and House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the particular bill or provision. Conflicts between the guidance in the Senate and House committee reports are usually resolved during conference on the bill and included in the managers' statement. Because committee reports and managers' statements are not legislative measures considered on the floor of the Senate or House, they are not subject to key points of order to which bills and amendments are vulnerable. Significantly, report language and managers' statements do not have statutory force, departments and agencies are not legally bound by their declarations. These documents do, however, explain congressional intent, and executive branch agencies take them seriously because they must justify their budget requests annually to the Appropriations Committees.
1 In the House, general appropriations bills refers to the 13 annual regular appropriations bills and supplemental appropriations measures, which provide funds for more than one purpose or agency. The term does not apply to continuing resolutions. In the Senate, by contrast, the term general appropriations bills refers to regular appropriations bills and supplemental measures included by the House as well as continuing resolutions.