- Accrual Method of Measuring Cost
-
Records cost when the liability is incurred. As applied to retirement
benefits, cost is recorded when the benefits are earned rather than when they
are paid or at some other time.
- Authorization
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An authorization is an act of Congress that establishes or continues
a federal program or agency, and sets forth the guidelines to which it must
adhere.
- Balanced Budget
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A balanced budget occurs when total receipts equal total outlays for
a fiscal year.
- Budget Authority (BA)
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Budget authority is the authority provided by law to incur financial
obligations that will result in outlays.
- Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) of 1990
-
The BEA is the law that was designed to limit discretionary spending
while ensuring that any new entitlement program or tax cuts did not increase
deficits. It set annual limits on total discretionary spending and created
pay-as-you-go rules for changes in entitlements and taxes. See Pay-As-You-Go and Cap.
- Budget Resolution
-
The budget resolution is the annual framework that Congress uses to
set targets for total spending, total revenues, and the deficit, as well as
allocations, within the spending target, for discretionary and mandatory spending.
A budget resolution does not become law and is not binding on the Executive
Branch.
- Cap
-
A “cap’’ is a legal limit on annual discretionary
spending. See Discretionary Spending.
- Capital Planning and Investment Control
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A decision-making process for ensuring that information technology (IT)
investments integrate strategic planning, budgeting, procurement, and the
management of IT in support of agency missions and business needs.
- Clinger-Cohen Act
-
The Clinger-Cohen Act is also known as the Information Technology Management
Reform Act of 1996. The act supplements the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980
by establishing a comprehensive approach for executive agencies to improve
the acquisition and management of their information resources.
- Competitive Sourcing
-
Competitive sourcing is a management initiative to make government more
market-based, allowing the public sector to embrace the principles of competition,
innovation, and choice. It determines the most effective method of obtaining
services available in the commercial marketplace. One commonly used process
is found in OMB Circular A–76 and may result in a public-private competition
or the conversion of in-house work to the private sector.
- Deficit
-
A deficit is the amount by which outlays exceed receipts in a fiscal
year.
- Discretionary Spending
-
Discretionary spending is what the President and Congress decide to
spend through the 13 annual appropriations bills. Examples include money
for such activities as the FBI and the Coast Guard, housing and education,
space exploration and highway construction, and defense and foreign aid.
See Mandatory Spending.
- E-Government
-
E-Government refers to the federal government’s use of information
technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing)
to exchange information and services with citizens, businesses, and other
arms of government.
- Enterprise Architecture
-
Enterprise architecture is an agency-wide framework for incorporating
business processes, information flows, applications, and infrastructure to
support agency goals.
- Entitlement
-
An entitlement program is one in which the federal government is legally
obligated to make payments or provide aid to any person who meets the legal
criteria for eligibility. Examples include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
and Food Stamps.
- FAIR Act
-
The Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act of 1998 requires
federal agencies to submit annually to OMB an inventory of all activities
performed by federal employees that are not inherently governmental in nature
(i.e., that can be performed by the private sector). After OMB review, the
agency must send a copy of the inventory to Congress and also make it available
to the public.
- Federal Debt
-
Debt Held by the Public —The cumulative
amount of money the federal government has borrowed from the public and not
repaid.
Debt Held by Government Accounts —The
debt Treasury owes to other accounts within the federal government. Most
of it results from the surpluses of the Social Security and other trust funds,
which are required by law to be invested in federal securities.
Debt Limit —The maximum amount
of federal securities debt that may legally be outstanding at any time. It
includes both the debt held by the public and the debt held by government
accounts. When the debt limit is reached, the government cannot borrow more
money until the Congress has enacted a law to increase the limit.
- Fiscal Year
-
The fiscal year is the federal government’s accounting period.
It begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. For example, fiscal year
2003 begins on October 1, 2002 and ends on September 30, 2003.
- Full-time Equivalents (FTEs)
-
Civilian employment in the Executive Branch is measured on the basis
of full-time equivalents. One FTE is equal to one work year or 2,080 non-overtime
hours. For example, one full-time employee counts as one FTE, and two half-time
employees also count as one FTE.
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
-
GDP is the standard measure of the size of the economy. It is the total
production of goods and services within the United States.
- Human Capital
-
Human capital refers to the education, knowledge, skills, and competencies
of the personnel of an agency.
- Mandatory Spending
-
Mandatory spending is authorized by permanent law rather than annual
appropriations. An example is Social Security. The President and the Congress
can change the law to change the eligibility criteria and thus the level of
spending on mandatory programs, but they don’t have to take annual action
to ensure the continuation of spending. See Discretionary Spending .
- Offsetting Collections and Offsetting Receipts
-
Offsetting collections and offsetting receipts are monies that are deducted
from outlays, rather than counted on the receipts side of the budget. They
are often paid in return for providing goods or services. For example,
payments the Postal Service receives for stamps are offsetting collections.
- Off-Budget
-
By law certain programs, such as Social Security and the Postal Services,
are accounted for separately from all other programs in government and are
accorded this separate treatment.
- On-Budget
-
Those programs not legally designated as off-budget.
- Outlays
-
Outlays are the amount of money the government actually spends in a
given fiscal year.
- Pay-As-You-Go
-
Created by the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA), pay-as-you-go refers to
requirements that new mandatory spending proposals or tax reductions must
be offset by cuts in other mandatory spending or by tax increases, to ensure
that the deficit does not rise or the surplus does not fall. See Budget
Enforcement Act.
- Performance-based Budgeting
-
Performance-based budgeting separates programs that work from those
that do not. It allocates budgetary and human capital resources by comparing
historical and expected future performance levels with the full cost of producing
desired program outcomes as defined in the agency’s strategic goals
and objectives.
- Receipts
-
Receipts are the collections of money that result from taxes and other
government activity. Examples of receipts include income taxes, excise taxes,
and customs duties. They do not include collections from the federal government’s
business-like activities, such as the entrance fees at national parks. Business-like
collections are subtracted from total spending to calculate outlays for the
year.
- Surplus
-
A surplus is the amount by which receipts exceed outlays in a fiscal
year.
- Trust Funds
-
Trust funds are federal government accounts set up by law to record
receipts and spend them for specified purposes.
- Unified Budget
-
The unified budget includes receipts from all sources and outlays for
all programs of the federal government. It is the most comprehensive display
of the government’s finances.