Money Congress can’t touch almost doubles – By Jessie Bur (federaltimes.com) / Dec 11 2018
Federal agencies increasingly have more money available to spend that does not require yearly congressional approval, according to a Dec. 11 Government Accountability Office report.
Federal spending authorities that did not go through the annual congressional appropriations process reached $3.2 trillion in 2015, an 88 percent increase on those same authorities in 1994.
“As a result of these authorities, more appropriations are available to agencies that does not require them to await congressional action to incur obligations,” said Tranchau Nguyen, director of strategic issues at GAO, at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.
“Permanent appropriations, which is the budget authority to incur payments and make obligations without further congressional action, were the primary driver of the growth.”
These permanent or mandatory appropriations, sometimes referred to as “backdoor appropriations,” are granted to agencies through the passage of legislation and go toward funding programs like Medicare and Social Security.
According to Nguyen, the Department of Health and Human Services reported the largest usage of such authorities at $979 billion in 2015, followed by the Social Security Administration with $920 billion, and the Department of Treasury with $542 billion.
“Mandatory appropriations do not themselves pose constitutional problems. They are carried out pursuant to the authority of Congress,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.
“The overwhelming share of mandatory appropriations occur from Medicare, Social Security and payment of interest on the national debt.”
Agencies can also garner funding for backdoor spending through offsetting collections.
“The definition of offsetting collections, they are essentially fines, fees, penalties and settlements that agencies are authorized by law to collect and spend without congressional action. They don’t need further approval because they received permanent budget authority in prior laws,” said James Wallner, senior fellow at the R Street Institute.
Offsetting collections accounted for $421 billion in 2015, a 126 percent increase from the 1994 amount.
According to Wallner, this kind of budgeting has advantages in that it insulates certain programs from political maneuvering while ensuring the efficiency and flexibility of such programs. But such appropriations also move some of the power of the budgeting process out of Congress’s hands.
Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., has introduced legislation that would move the funds from backdoor payments into the Treasury so that they can be subject to direct appropriation by Congress.
“No Congress should concede its authority to another Congress, which is what we’ve done,” said Palmer.
