FY 2009 U.S. federal budget

Background
Funding for the government is provided by Congress under Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution. This is the "purse strings power" and there are no exceptions to it. Absent appropriations made by law, no operations by the government may take place: government employees may not work without pay and those who would contract with the government may not "volunteer" their goods or services.

Funding for government employees salaries and wages(including the President) is provided in "one year" funds which expire at the end of a fiscal year. While Congress may pass "continuing resolutions" providing some interim funding where appropriations are not timely enacted, in the absence of such continuing resolutions no government employee may work.

House
On March 13, 2008, the House passed its original version of the FY2009 budget resolution by a vote of 212-207.



Prior to passing the resolution, the House rejected a substitute proposal offered as an amendment by Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus by a vote of 126-292. Among the provisions of the substitute proposal were the repeal of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts on incomes over $200,000 and increased funding for education.



Americans for Democratic Action, which supported the amendment, selected the vote for their 2008 House scorecard, where they gave it the following description: "Fiscal 2009 Budget Resolution -- Congressional Black Caucus Substitute: Kilpatrick (D-MI) substitute amendment that would achieve a budget surplus of $183 billion in fiscal 2012 by repealing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for households with incomes over $200,000 and by repealing certain corporate tax breaks, while increasing funds for health care, education and job training programs, and veteran benefits and services."

The House later passed a resolution on May 14, 2008, adopting the Senate's budget resolution S. Con. Res. 70 for fiscal year 2009, sending the bill to conference committee.



Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) offered a motion to give instructions to the conferees, but the motion to instruct failed to pass.



Senate
On March 14, 2008, the Senate passed the resolution as amended by a vote of 51-44.



Amendments
Prior to that passage, several amendments were considered.


 * Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) proposed an amendment to raise the exemption to the estate tax (to $5 million) and to extend other tax cuts related to capital gains.


 * Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) proposed an amendment "to add a deficit-neutral reserve fund for repealing the 1993 rate increase for the alternative minimum tax for individuals."




 * Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) proposed an amendment to repeal part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 and thus restore the prior Alternative Minimum Tax rates.




 * Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) proposed an amendment "to reform the estate tax to avoid subjecting thousands of families, family businesses, and family farms and ranches to the estate tax."




 * Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) proposed an amendment "to add a deficit-neutral reserve fund for repealing the 1993 increase in the income tax on Social Security benefits."




 * Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) proposed an amendment "to increase the Indian Health Service by $1 billion in FY 2009."




 * Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) proposed an amendment "to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to improve energy efficiency and production."




 * Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) proposed an amendment to transfer $670,000 from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to the Department of Education for the teaching of English to adults through the English Literacy/Civics Education State Grant program.




 * Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) proposed an amendment "to establish a reserve fund for immigration reform and enforcement."




 * Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) proposed an amendment "to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund for border security, immigration enforcement, and criminal alien removal programs."




 * Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) proposed an amendment "to protect the family budget by providing for a budget point of order against legislation that increases income taxes on taxpayers, including hard-working middle-income families, entrepreneurs, and college students."




 * Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) proposed an amendment "to require wealthy Medicare beneficiaries to pay a greater share of their Medicare Part D premiums."

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 * Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) proposed an amendment "to put children ahead of millionaires and billionaires by restoring the pre-2001 top income tax rate for people earning over $1 million, and use this revenue to invest in LIHEAP; IDEA; Head Start; Child Care; nutrition; school construction and deficit reduction."

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 * Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) proposed an amendment "to provide for a deficit-neutral reserve fund for Social Security reform."

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 * Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) proposed an amendment "to pay down the Federal debt and eliminate government waste by reducing spending 5 percent on programs rated (as mandated under the Government Performance and Results Act (Public Law 103-62)) ineffective by the Office of Management and Budget Program Assessment Rating Tool."

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 * Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) proposed an amendment "to provide funds for a Commission on Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies."

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 * Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) proposed an amendment "to create a reserve fund to ensure that Federal assistance does not go to sanctuary cities that ignore the immigration laws of the United States and create safe havens for illegal aliens and potential terrorists." The Senate agreed to table the amendment.

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 * Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) proposed an amendment to provide $50 million in increased funding for the Department of Justice's efforts to enforce the Child Custody Act.

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 * Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) proposed an amendment "to establish an earmark moratorium for fiscal year 2009."

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 * Sen. Jim DeMint proposed an amendment to shift additional funding to the Marine Corps.

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 * Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) proposed an amendment to expand coverage of SCHIP to pregnant women.

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 * Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) proposed an amendment "to require that legislation to reauthorize SCHIP include provisions codifying the unborn child regulation."

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 * Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) proposed an amendment "to restore full funding for the international affairs budget, in support of the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear nonproliferation, foreign assistance, fighting global AIDS, promoting sustainable development, and other efforts, with an offset."

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 * Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) proposed an amendment "expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the need for comprehensive legislation to legalize the importation of prescription drugs from highly industrialized countries with safe pharmaceutical infrastructures."

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Senate motions to instruct conferees
Prior to entering discussions with the House, the Senate considered motions to instruct the conferees regarding language to be included in the report.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) proposed a motion to instruct conferees that "no legislation providing for new mandates on greenhouse gas emissions should be enacted until it effectively addresses imports from China, India, and other nations that have no similar emissions programs."

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Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) proposed a motion that would have instructed conferees to "insist that the conference report include a reserve fund that requires the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee to adjust budget aggregates and the allocation of the Energy Committee, if the Senate considers legislation that allows a Governor, with the concurrence of the State legislature to petition for increased energy exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf and that allows for revenue sharing for such producing States on new areas of production and new leases made available, if the average price of regular gasoline in the United States reaches $5 per gallon." <usvoteinfo year="2008" chamber="senate" rollcall="134" />

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) proposed a motion to instruct conferees "to bring this budget back under the trillion-dollar level in the discretionary side." " <usvoteinfo year="2008" chamber="senate" rollcall="135" />

Senate
On June 4, 2008, the Senate voted 48-45 to approve the conference report for the FY 2009 budget resolution, which also sets the budget levels for FY2008 and FY2010-FY2013.

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House
The House then approved the conference report the following day by a vote of 214-210. <usvoteinfo rollcall="382" chamber="house" year="2008" />