There are two types of authorization bills:
(1) Congress frequently authorizes appropriations in an organic or enabling statute,
which usually provides the general framework for the agency or program. For these
funds to be made available, an appropriations bill must subsequently provide the
budget authority, the authority for agencies to obligate funding pursuant to authorizing laws.
(2) However, Congress can also provide budget authority directly in authorization laws.
This spending authority is also known as mandatory spending or direct spending and
constitutes spending authority provided in laws other than appropriations laws.
In fact, while annual appropriations acts control the spending for the majority of
Federal programs, they only control about 35 percent of the total Federal spending
in a typical year. Authorizing legislation controls the rest of the spending.
A distinctive feature of these laws is that they provide agencies with the authority
to collect or to spend money without first requiring the Appropriations Committees
to enact funding. This category of spending includes interest the Government pays
on the public debt and the spending of several major entitlement programs,
such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and
Federal employee retirement.
