ADVANCE APPROPRIATIONS

An advance appropriation is one made to become available one year or more beyond the year for which the appropriations act is passed. Advance appropriations in 2012 appropriations acts will become available for programs in 2013 or beyond. Since these appropriations are not available until after 2012, the amounts will not be included in the 2012 totals, but will be reflected in the totals for the year for which they are requested.

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (31 U.S.C. 1105(a)(17)) requires inclusion in the budget of "information on estimates of appropriations for the fiscal year following the fiscal year for which the budget is submitted for grants, contracts, and other payments under each program for which there is an authorization of appropriations for that following fiscal year when the appropriations are authorized to be included in an appropriation law for the fiscal year before the fiscal year in which the appropriation is to be available for obligation." In fulfillment of this requirement, the accompanying table lists those accounts that have either received discretionary or mandatory advance appropriations since 2010 or will request, in 2012, advance appropriations for 2013 and beyond and cites the applicable authorizing statute.

The enacted Continuing Resolution for 2011 (P.L. 111–242, as amended) does not explicitly address advance appropriations for 2012. If a full year continuing resolution is enacted, this Budget, as illustrated by the accompanying table, assumes that specific legislative anomaly language will be included to make 2012 advance appropriations available. This is in order to ensure comparability with annual funding provided under the enacted Continuing Resolution for 2011. In general, the Budget also assumes that the 2012 level that would be enacted in the legislative anomaly for discretionary appropriations is consistent with the 2011 advance appropriations that were enacted in the 2010 appropriations acts. However, for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the 2012 level is instead consistent with the 2012 advance appropriation that was requested in the 2011 Budget, but with a requested reduction of $713 million to reflect savings from the enacted 2012 pay freeze. For the mandatory advance appropriations, the Budget assumes that the 2012 level is the request from the 2011 Budget.

Advance Appropriations by Agency in the 2012 Budget (Budget authority in millions of dollars)
Enacted Levels CR 2013
Agency/Program 2010 2011 2012 Request
Discretionary One-year Advances:
Department of Defense (P.L. 111–118, P.L. 111–383):
Missile Procurement, Air Force1 ........ ........ ........ 803
Department of Education (20 U.S.C. 1223):2
Education for the Disadvantaged 10,841 10,841 10,841 11,681
Special Education 8,592 8,592 8,592 9,433
Career, Technical, and Adult Education 791 791 791 791
School Improvement Programs 1,681 1,681 1,681 ........
Department of Housing and Urban Development (42 U.S.C. 1437 et seq.):
Tenant-Based Rental Assistance 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000
Project-Based Rental Assistance 400 394 394 400
Department of Labor:
Training and Employment Services (29 U.S.C. 2801 et seq.) 1,772 1,772 1,772 1,772
Office of Job Corps (29 U.S.C. 2881 et seq.) 691 691 691 666
2012 Cancellation Proposal ........ ........ –25 ........
Department of Veterans Affairs (P.L. 111–81):
Medical Services ........ 37,136 39,650 41,354
Medical Support and Compliance ........ 5,307 5,535 5,746
Medical Facilities ........ 5,740 5,426 5,441
2012 Cancellation Proposal ........ ........ –713 ........
Postal Service:
Payment to Postal Service fund (39 U.S.C. 2401) 83 89 89 78
Discretionary Two-year Advances:
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (47 U.S.C. 396)3 420 430 445 445
Subtotal, Discretionary Advance Appropriations 29,271 77,464 79,169 82,610
Mandatory:
Department of Health and Human Services:
Grants to States for Medicaid (42 U.S.C. 1396) 71,700 86,789 86,445 90,614
Payments to States for Child Support Enforcement and Family Support (24 U.S.C. Ch. 9) 1,000 1,100 1,200 1,100
Payments to States for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance (P.L. 96–272) 1,800 1,850 1,850 2,100
Department of Labor:
Special Benefits for Disabled Coal Miners (30 U.S.C. 921) 56 45 41 40
Social Security Administration:
Supplemental Security Income Program (42 U.S.C. 1381) 15,400 16,000 13,400 18,200
Total, Advance Appropriations 119,227 183,248 182,105 194,664
1 One additional new advance appropriation that the Administration is proposing to be considered outside of the limit on advance appropriations is for full funding of selected procurement programs for satellites at the Department of Defense (DOD). In the 2012 request, regular and advance appropriations in the Missile Procurement, Air Force account are requested to fully fund the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite and certain classified programs. In addition, the 2013 request will include advance appropriations for the Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) beginning in 2014. In total, this will result in advance appropriations for DOD becoming available in the following fiscal years: $803 million in 2013, $1,112 million in 2014, $1,048 million in 2015, $755 million in 2016, $1,113 million in 2017, and $1,028 million in 2018. 2 To account for the Administration's Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization proposal, the 2012 Budget eliminates the $1.681 billion advance appropriation that was previously in the School Improvement account (renamed the Education Improvement Account) and replaces it with corresponding increases to advance appropriations in the accounts for Education for the Disadvantaged ($840 million, renamed Accelerating Achievement and Ensuring Equity) and Special Education ($841 million). Total advance appropriations in the Department of Education remain unchanged at $21.905 billion.3 The 2012 request includes a 2014 advance appropriation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting of $451 million, consistent with the historical practice of providing the Corporation a two-year advance appropriation.