House and senate Budget Committees
In an effort to consider the budget as a whole, Congress established House and senate budget committees and a congressional Budget Office (CBO) to review the president’s budget after its submission to congress. These committees draft a first budget resolution (due May 15) setting forth target goals to guide committee actions on specific appropriation and revenue measures. If appropriation measures exceed the target in the budget resolution, it comes back to the floor in a reconciliation measure. A second budget resolution (due September 15) sets binding budget figures for committees and subcommittees considering appropriations. In practice, however, these two budget resolutions have been folded into a single measure because Congress does not want to reargue the same issues.