Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2009 Restoring the Jurisdictional Boundaries Between Authorizations and Appropriations Franklin Logan Georgetown University Law Center,
[email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/flpr/5 This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/flpr Part of the Accounting Law Commons, Jurisdiction Commons, and the Legislation Commons GEORGETOWN LAW Student Works Fiscal Law and Policy Reform Briefing Papers Series September 2009 Restoring the Jurisdictional Boundaries Between Authorizations and Appropriations Franklin Logan Georgetown University Law Center
[email protected] This paper can be downloaded without charge from: Scholarly Commons: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/flpr/5/ Posted with permission of the author Restoring the Jurisdictional Boundaries Between Authorizations and Appropriations By Franklin Logan Federal Appropriations Law – LAWJ – 181-08 Professor Samuel Mahaney April 27, 2009 Introduction Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution expressly grants Congress the power of the purse: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of Appropriations made by law.”1 The Constitution requires no more, and Congress under its discretion has formalized, to some degree, the modern appropriations process by establishing internal rules in the House and Senate and, in some cases, by statute.2 These congressional rules have evolved since the first Congress to reflect power struggles between various congressional committees and Members and between the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch. Today, Congress fulfills its Article I, Section 9 obligation through a yearly appropriations cycle shepherded by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.