Every February, prior to the new fiscal year (October 1-September 30) the President submits his proposed budget. On the first Monday in February, the Congress receives the budget. The actual numbers are joined with extensive supporting information intended for Congress to sway them into supporting the proposal.

Both the House and Senate budget committees draft resolutions by early April and submit them to the floor for consideration. Once both Houses accept the resolution, a conference report is drafted by members of the Senate and the House with the purpose of reconciling differences between House and Senate versions of the resolution. As the final resolution is concurrent, it is not law and at that point needs no Presidential signature. On that point, no appropriations are yet made.

Following House and Senate floor talks on the budget and the concurrent resolution, the budget goes into the appropriations stage. There are two different types of federal spending:

• Discretionary Spending: requires an annual appropriation bill, and is determined by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees as well as various subcommittees. This spending is tied specifically to a fiscal year and is allocated according to the discretion of Congress.

• Mandatory Spending: refers to funding of programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. They do not require annual appropriations, as they are permanent federal programs.

The Senate Appropriations subcommittees draft appropriation bills covering each agency under its jurisdiction (Defense, Legislative Branch, etc.) based on the Congressional Budget Resolution (drafted by the Senate Budget committee). With 60 Senators in favor, the full Senate may vote to waive spending limits that have been set by the 26 member Committee. Once the appropriations have been made in their respective areas, the discretionary and mandatory spending are combined into the budget resolution, passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President for the October 1st start of the new fiscal year. If a resolution is not passed through one of the two houses, or both, then a continuing resolution is approved by Congress and signed by the President in order to keep the government running while the problematic spending is debated.

As Chairman of the Appropriations Committee (currently Sen. Byrd), one has enormous power. "Pork barrel spending", as it's called, refers to appropriating large funds to ones own state; this is often done in the Committee, as the members hold the reigns of discretionary spending.