The Congressional Budget Office is providing the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform with information about the period during which discretionary budget authority provided in annual appropriation acts is generally available for obligation. By law, budget authority is provided to allow federal agencies to enter into obligations, and in most cases, those funds expire if they are not obligated during a specified period. Once expired, such funds are no longer available for obligation unless newly appropriated. Discretionary budget authority generally is designated as: Data from the Department of the Treasury (see attached report) indicates that the discretionary budget authority provided for fiscal year 2017 (excluding advance appropriations and spending authority from offsetting collections) was made available as follows: |