GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Budget Authority

Budget authority for any year represents the authority to incur obligations, requiring either immediate or future payment, which will become available during the year. Appropriations on which the Congress acts are the most common form of budget authority, allowing Federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes.

Federal Funds

Funds collected and used by the Federal Government for the general purposes of the Government. There are four types of Federal fund accounts: the general fund, special funds, public enterprise (revolving) funds, and intra-governmental funds. The primary Federal funds type is the general fund, derived from general taxes and borrowing.

Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-226)

This law authorizes agencies to offer incentive payments to employees who resign or retire voluntarily on or after March 30, 1994, and before October 1, 1995. The law also mandates that the Government reduce its workforce by 272,900 employees before fiscal year 2000.

Full-time Equivalent (Workyears) Employment

Compensable workyears for all Federal personnel, calculated by dividing the total number of hours (worked or to be worked) by the number of compensable hours applicable to each fiscal year (8 x the number of compensable days in each fiscal year). For a fiscal year with 260 days, the divisor is 2080, for 261 days, 2088; for 262 days, 2096.

Offsetting Receipts

Collections deposited in receipt accounts that are offset against budget authority and outlays rather than being counted as budget receipts. These collections are derived from other Government accounts or from Government activities that are of a business-type or market-oriented nature.

Outlays

Obligations incurred under budget authority are generally liquidated by the issuance of checks by the Treasury. Such payments are called outlays. Outlays during any fiscal year may be payments of obligations incurred in prior fiscal years or in the same fiscal year.

Permanent Positions

Permanent positions are funded positions which are occupied or expected to be occupied by full-time employees with permanent appointments as of September 30 of each year.

Reprogrammings and Transfers

A reprogramming is the shifting of dollar and/or personnel resources within an appropriation account, from one project or activity to another, to be used for purposes other than those contained in the year's official budget justification or expressed as Congressional intent in the enacted appropriations bill and Committee reports. Reprogrammings also occur when offices or staffs are to be relocated. Transfers also shift dollar and/or personnel resources away from their originally intended and approved uses, however, these moves take place between, rather than within appropriation accounts. Both reprogrammings and transfers are defined annually in the appropriations act. Both require a fifteen day notice to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for their review, before the proposed actions can take place.

Rescission

A rescission is a Presidential proposal to cancel budget authority that has been appropriated but not yet obligated. Proposed rescissions are reported to the Congress and the Comptroller General. The Senate and the House both must approve the proposed rescission with 45 days of continuous session or the funds are automatically released for obligation.

Supplemental Appropriation

An act appropriating funds in addition to those in an annual appropriation act. Supplemental appropriations provide additional budget authority beyond original estimates for programs or activities (including new programs authorized after the date of the original appropriation act) for which the need for funds is too urgent to be postponed until enactment of the next regular appropriation act.

Trust Funds

Funds collected and used by the Federal Government for carrying out specified purposes and programs according to terms of a trust agreement or statute, such as the social security and unemployment trust funds. Trust funds are not available for the general purposes of the Government.

= 7.3. GOVERNMENT PROVING OFFICE: 1998 – J437–542 - 814/80661

Mr. ROGERS. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I have to agree with you that we have developed, I think, a respectable and agreeable working relationship and I find that you have been cooperative and you lay things on the top of the table where we can all see them. We may not agree on things, but we at least do it in an honest and open manner, which is what I appreciate.

ADVANCE TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

As you know, the President's fiscal year 1999 budget assumes that the Advanced Technology Program will do $92 million in new awards this year, fiscal year 1998, instead of the $82 million that we provided for in the Appropriations Act. Has that changed?

Mr. DALEY. No, it has not, Mr. Chairman. We will do $82 million and that was a misstatement in the budget. We will live up to the agreement that was reached, and that is $82 million, in spite of the fact that we have carryover of about $10 million.

Mr. ROGERS. And you are still only requesting $94 million in new awards for fiscal year 1999, correct?

Mr. DALEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROGERS. And you will not try to increase that?

Mr. DALEY. No.

Mr. ROGERS. As a result, based on my calculations, there is at least $22 million in excess in the ATP program in your budget request. Given our budget constraints, what are the highest priority areas that this excess could be directed toward?

Mr. DALEY. Let me just mention, I have been told, Mr. Chairman, that today we have about $13.4 million in the bank and about $6 million more to be gotten later. So we, at this point, have $13.4 million. Exactly what we would do with the additional funds would be determined later. I am not quite sure at this point what decision would be made as to where we would spend it.

DECENNIAL CENSUS

Mr. ROGERS. Well, let us get to the census, which will be the big bone of contention or has been. I hope we can get that behind us. Mr. DALEY. The political issue of whether or not to sample has got to get behind us, but the challenges of the census and doing it are enormous and they will be with us all the way through the cen

sus.

Mr. ROGERS. I have some concerns about your budget request in light of the agreement last year for this dual track approach, sampling and the more traditional approach. As per the agreement, the 1998 Appropriations Act mandates that the Census Bureau devote sufficient resources in fiscal year 1999 to "become prepared to implement a 2000 Decennial Census without using statistical methods which shall result in the percentage of the total population being enumerated as close to 100 percent as possible." How much did you request of OMB for planning, testing, and preparing for a full enumeration that does not use statistical methods and how much did OMB give you?

Mr. DALEY. We had put to them a figure of about $128 million. After discussions and consultations with OMB, the Department came back to a figure of about $36 million. It is broken down the following ways: $4 million to complete and evaluate the dress re