Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) FY2016 Appropriations: Overview

Summary

The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and more than two dozen independent agencies. In its current form, it has existed since the 2007 reorganization of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate.

On February 2, 2015, President Obama submitted his FY2016 budget request. The request included a total of $46.8 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including $322 million for the CFTC.

On July 9, 2015, the House Committee on Appropriations reported a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2016 (H.R. 2995, H.Rept. 114-194). Total FY2016 funding in the reported bill would be $41.6 billion, with another $245 million for the CFTC included in the Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 3049, H.Rept. 114-205), which was reported on July 14, 2015. The combined total of $41.8 billion would be about $4.9 billion below the President’s FY2016 request.

On July 30, 2015, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported the Financial Services and General Government Act, 2016 (S. 1910, S.Rept. 114-97). S. 1910 would appropriate $42.1 billion for FY2016, about $4.7 billion below the President’s request.

On September 30, 2015, H.R. 719, a continuing resolution (CR) for FY2016, was signed into law by the President (P.L. 114-53). The CR generally provides budget authority for FY2015 projects and activities at the rate they were funded during that fiscal year. Most projects and activities funded in the CR are subject to an across-the-board decrease of less than 1% (0.2108%). The FSGG section of the CR also includes a small number of provisions that designate exceptions to the formula and purpose for which any referenced funding is extended (referred to as anomalies).

Although financial services are a major focus of the bills, FSGG appropriations bills do not include many financial regulatory agencies, which are funded outside of the appropriations process. Both H.R. 2995 and S. 1910 include language that would alter the appropriations status of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), changing its primary funding source to the FSGG bill instead of unappropriated funds provided through the Federal Reserve. The Senate committee FSGG bill also includes the text of S. 1484, a broad financial regulatory reform package that was previously reported by the Senate Banking Committee, but has not been considered by the full Senate.