EP 1165-2-1
30 Jul 99
of budget authority. Whenever the President, the Director of OMB, the
head of any department or agency of the United States, or any other
officer or employee of the United States proposes to defer any budget
authority provided for a specific purpose or project, the President
shall transmit to the House of Representatives and the Senate a
special message. A deferral may not be proposed for any period of
time extending beyond the end of the fiscal year in which the special
message proposing the deferral is transmitted to the House and the
Senate. Any amount of budget authority proposed to be deferred shall
be made available for obligation if either House of Congress passes a
resolution disapproving such proposed deferral. Otherwise, the funds
proposed for deferral become available at the start of the next fiscal
year or on the earlier date specified in the deferral message.
(2) Rescissions. Rescissions are the permanent withdrawal of
funding authority because such authority is not required to carry out
the full objectives and scope of the appropriations concerned. A
rescission differs from a deferral in that there is no intent ever to
spend the funds being proposed for rescission. In effect, it is a
de-appropriation. A rescission message to Congress is required
whenever the President determines that all or part of any budget
authority will not be required to carry out the full objectives or
scope of programs for which it is provided or that such budget
authority should be rescinded for fiscal policy or other reasons
(including the termination of authorized projects or activities for
which budget authority has been provided), or whenever all or part of
budget authority provided for only one fiscal year is to be reserved
from obligation for such fiscal year. The President is required to
transmit to both Houses of Congress a special message. Congress must
pass a resolution within 45 days for a rescission to be implemented.
c.
Reprogramming.
(1) The Appropriations Committees have delegated to the Chief
of Engineers the authority to reprogram funds among projects in the
construction category, not to exceed 15 percent of the amount
available for obligation to a project for any fiscal year, including
the Conference allowance plus the unobligated balance at the beginning
of the fiscal year. An exception to the percent limitation permits
the reprogramming of up to 0,000 for projects on which the amount
available for the fiscal year is ,000,000 or less. A second
exception permits the reprogramming of up to ,000,000 for settled
contractor claims, accelerated contractor earnings, or real estate
deficiency judgments. Reprogramming beyond these limits must be
coordinated with the Appropriations Committees. Funds cannot be
reprogrammed from one appropriation account to another without an act
of Congress such as a supplemental appropriation. (ER 11-2-201)
(a) Surveys and Preconstruction Engineering and Design
reprogramming are approved on a different basis. The minimum
reprogramming authority is ,000 in any case. Where existing
allowances equal or exceed ,000, the reprogramming authority is 100
percent up to ,000 and 25 percent of the increment over ,000,
not to exceed a total of 0,000.
(b) Reprogramming within the above cited limits is made only to
those projects and surveys which have previously received an approved
allocation through the budgetary process.
(c) Unless specifically limited by Congress, reprogramming
between operations and maintenance items is without limit and is
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