Follow the flow › Step 10 of 16 · Voting path
10. Appropriations: the money decision
An appropriation is a law that lets an agency spend a set amount of money for a purpose. The Constitution says no money may leave the Treasury unless Congress passes one. This is called the power of the purse. There are 12 regular appropriations bills each year. If they are late, Congress passes a stopgap (continuing resolution) or the government partly shuts down. Government wages are paid from these appropriations too.
Who holds the money or the vote here?
Congress decides; the money stays in the Treasury until an agency uses it.
How often does it happen?
Once a year for the fiscal year starting October 1 (states: usually yearly or every 2 years; Texas every 2 years).
Where the records come from
Federal data is the same for everyone. When you pick a state, the state and local rows are the places to look for your state. "Have now" means PSI Sci already collects it; "Planned" means we list the source but do not collect it yet.
| Level | Source | Format | How often | On PSI Sci |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal | USAspending federal accounts: budget authority by agency and account PSI Sci collects agency totals (fed-spending-agencies) | API | monthly | Have now |
| Federal | Congress.gov appropriations status table | page | as passed | Planned |
| State | State budget / general appropriations act (example: the Texas one) | PDF/bulk | every 1-2 years | Planned |
| County | County adopted budget | yearly | Planned | |
| City | City adopted budget | yearly | Planned | |
| District | (appropriations are not split by district) | - | - | Not used |
| ZIP | (appropriations are not split by ZIP) | - | - | Not used |
See these sources as searchable records (rendered live).
See it on PSI Sci now
Variable names
| Variable | Federal | State | County | City | District | ZIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
appropriation_amount | fed_appropriation_amount | st_appropriation_amount | cnty_appropriation_amount | cty_appropriation_amount | dist_appropriation_amount | zip_appropriation_amount |
budget_authority | fed_budget_authority | st_budget_authority | cnty_budget_authority | cty_budget_authority | dist_budget_authority | zip_budget_authority |
account_id | account_id | account_id | account_id | account_id | account_id | account_id |
fiscal_year | fed_fiscal_year | st_fiscal_year | cnty_fiscal_year | cty_fiscal_year | dist_fiscal_year | zip_fiscal_year |
bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id |
continuing_resolution | fed_continuing_resolution | st_continuing_resolution | cnty_continuing_resolution | cty_continuing_resolution | dist_continuing_resolution | zip_continuing_resolution |
IDs (like bioguide_id, bill_id, piid, zcta) have no prefix because they already say what they point to.