# Appropriations Process The part of the [[Federal Budget Process]] that actually funds the government: **twelve annual appropriations bills**, written by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, that provide the budget authority (see [[Outlays vs Budget Authority]]) for all discretionary spending (see [[Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending]]). They are supposed to pass before the Oct 1 start of the fiscal year. They almost never do. ## The twelve bills Defense; Labor-HHS-Education; Commerce-Justice-Science; Energy-Water; Interior- Environment; Agriculture; Transportation-HUD; Financial Services & General Government; Homeland Security; Military Construction-VA; State-Foreign Operations; Legislative Branch. Together they cover only **~27% of total outlays** — the mandatory giants ([[Social Security]], [[Medicare]], [[Net Interest on the Debt]]) run on autopilot outside this process entirely. ## How it actually works now On-time passage of all twelve is essentially extinct. The modern pattern: - A [[Continuing Resolution]] keeps the lights on past Oct 1. - Bills get bundled into an **omnibus** or **minibus** at a deadline. - If a CR lapses without agreement, a [[Government Shutdown]] follows. FY2026 took **two shutdowns** (a record 43-day one, then a partial one) before all twelve were finally enacted. ## The RWKB angle Appropriations is the live theater of the [[Power of the Purse]] — the recurring fight where shutdown brinkmanship, policy riders, and the threat of [[Rescission and Impoundment]] all play out. Because it controls only the discretionary quarter of spending, it is also where the **rhetoric-vs-outlays** gap is widest: enormous political energy is spent fighting over the slice of the budget that grows slowest, while the mandatory bulk is barely debated. See [[Budget Functions]]. ## Related - [[Continuing Resolution]] · [[Government Shutdown]] · [[Federal Budget Process]] - [[Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending]] · [[Budget Resolution]] · [[Budget Hub]]