Legislative Branch: FY2018 Appropriations

Summary

The legislative branch appropriations bill provides funding for the Senate; House of Representatives; Joint Items; Capitol Police; Office of Compliance; Congressional Budget Office (CBO); Architect of the Capitol (AOC); Library of Congress (LOC), including the Congressional Research Service (CRS); Government Publishing Office (GPO); Government Accountability Office (GAO); Open World Leadership Center; and the John C. Stennis Center.

The FY2018 legislative branch budget request of $4.865 billion was submitted on May 23, 2017. In general, FY2018 legislative branch budget requests were developed and submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) prior to the enactment of FY2017 funding. By law, the President includes the legislative branch request in the annual budget submission without change.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees’ Legislative Branch Subcommittees held hearings in May and June to consider the FY2018 legislative branch requests.

On June 23, 2016, the House Appropriations Committee Legislative Branch Subcommittee held a markup of the draft bill. The bill was ordered reported to the full committee by voice vote.

On June 29, the House Appropriations Committee held a markup of the bill. Four amendments were considered: two were adopted, one was not adopted, and one was withdrawn. The bill was ordered reported by voice vote. It would provide $3.580 billion, not including Senate items (H.R. 3162, H.Rept. 115-199).

On July 18, 2017, the text of H.R. 3162 was included in a print issued by the House Rules Committee entitled, “Text of the Defense, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch, and Energy And Water Development National Security Appropriations Act, 2018” (Committee Print 115-30, which also contains the text ofH.R. 3219, H.R. 2998, and H.R. 3266).

When compared to FY2010, which was the peak of legislative branch funding, the FY2017 level of $4.440 billion has decreased 4.9% when not adjusted for inflation and 14.9% when adjusted for inflation.

The FY2017 level was an increase of $77.0 million (+1.7%) from FY2016. The FY2016 level of $4.363 billion represented an increase of $63 million (+1.5%) from the FY2015 level of $4.300 billion, and the FY2015 level represented an increase of $41.7 million (+1.0%) from the FY2014 funding level of $4.259 billion. The FY2013 act funded legislative branch accounts at the FY2012 enacted level, with some exceptions (also known as “anomalies”), less across-the-board rescissions that applied to all appropriations in the act, and not including sequestration reductions implemented on March 1. The FY2012 level of $4.307 billion represented a decrease of $236.9 million (-5.2%) from the FY2011 level, which itself represented a $125.1 million decrease (-2.7%) from FY2010.

The smallest of the appropriations bills, the legislative branch comprises approximately 0.4% of total discretionary budget authority.