Every spring the federal government departments must submit to Congress their proposed spending estimates for inclusion in the President’s budget for the next fiscal year. The estimates go first to separate appropriations committees in the House and Senate for review and the inclusion of any changes the legislators believe are necessary before being combined into the final budget. This year, in response to the FAA’s FY 2003 request for $13 million to cover continuing loran development, the House proposed almost doubling the allocation to $25 million while the Senate proposed increasing it to $21 million.
Such differences in the respective committees’ proposed amendments–of which there are normally hundreds–are resolved by a joint House/Senate Conference Committee, which usually meets in the fall but, because of last month’s elections, will now meet early next year. However, the FAA seems assured of getting between $8 million and $12 million more to spend on loran in FY 2003 than it originally planned. In situations like this, where Congress commits an agency to a higher spending level than planned, legislators are displeased when the additional money it has allocated– and which may not be used for other programs–remains unspent.
