This article from The Brookings Institution provides a good overview of the steps involved in the Federal Budget approval process.

“The federal budget involves two kinds of spending: discretionary and mandatory. The discretionary aspect is handled through the annual appropriations process. In principle, this involves the drafting of 12 separate spending bills for different policy areas (defense, agriculture, Health and Human Services where Head Start resides, etc.) by individual Appropriations subcommittees in the House and Senate. After review by each chamber’s full Appropriations committee, the measures are considered on the floors of both houses. The House and Senate must then agree on a compromise version of each before sending it to the president for his signature. In practice, however, Congress has frequently struggled with completing these steps and instead has often combined the separate bills into one, large omnibus package.”

Source: “Trump’s budget request puts Congress on a rocky path” by Molly E. Reynolds

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/05/23/trumps-budget-request-puts-congress-on-a-rocky-path/, Accessed: Tuesday, May 23, 2017

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