Principles of Federal Appropriations Law - US Government ...

3. Obligation or
Expenditure Prior to
Start of Fiscal Year
Chapter 5
Availability of Appropriations: Time
the 1983 case was expressly limited to “proceedings funded in this Act,”
and thus could have no effect on the availability of prior appropriations.
Similar issues were considered in the context of multiple year
appropriations in 31 Comp. Gen. 368 (1952) and 31 Comp. Gen. 543 (1952),
overruling 31 Comp. Gen. 275 (1952). In both of these cases, based on a
determination of congressional intent, it was held that the current
restriction had no effect on the availability of unobligated balances of prior
unrestricted appropriations.
No-year appropriations have advantages and disadvantages. The
advantages to the spending agency are obvious. From the legislative
perspective, a key disadvantage is a loss of congressional control over
actual program levels from year to year. GAO has expressed the position
that no-year appropriations should not be made in the absence of
compelling programmatic or budgetary reasons. See U.S. General
Accounting Office, No-Year Appropriations in the Department of
Agriculture, PAD-78-74 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 19, 1978).
In considering what may and may not be done before the start of a fiscal
year, it is necessary to keep in mind the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits
obligations or expenditures in advance of appropriations, 31 U.S.C.
§ 1341(a), and apportionments, 31 U.S.C. § 1517(a). 5 By virtue of this law,
certainly no obligations may be incurred before the appropriation act is
enacted and amounts apportioned to the agency, unless specifically
authorized by law. 6
There are some decisions that stand for the proposition that if the
appropriation act is passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the
President prior to the start of the fiscal year for which the appropriation is
being made, contracts may be entered into upon enactment and before the
start of the fiscal year, provided that no payments or expenditures may be
made under them until the start of the fiscal year. Any such contract should
make this limitation clear. 20 Comp. Gen. 868 (1941); 16 Comp. Gen. 1007
(1937); 4 Comp. Gen. 887 (1925); 2 Comp. Gen. 739 (1923); 11 Comp.
Dec. 186 (1904); 4 Lawrence, First Comp. Dec. 132 (1883); B-20670, Oct. 18,
5 See Chapter 6, section C for a discussion of the apportionment process.
6 See Chapter 5, section B.
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