The 2017 United States federal budget is the

United States federal budget The United States budget comprises the spending and revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also b ...

for

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2017, which lasted from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017.

President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

submitted a budget proposal to the 114th Congress on February 9, 2016. The 2017 fiscal year overlaps the end of the Obama administration and the beginning of the Trump administration. The government was initially funded through a series of three temporary

continuing resolution In the United States, a continuing resolution (often abbreviated to CR) is a type of appropriations legislation. An appropriations bill is a bill that appropriates (gives to, sets aside for) money to specific federal government departments, ag ...

s. Funding for military construction and the

Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

was enacted on September 29, 2016 as part of the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act. The remaining funding was passed as an

omnibus spending bill An omnibus spending bill is a type of bill in the United States that packages many of the smaller ordinary appropriations bills into one larger single bill that can be passed with only one vote in each house. There are twelve different ordinary ap ...

, the

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 (, ), also known as the 2017 omnibus spending bill, is a United States appropriations legislation passed during the 115th Congress. It provides spending permission to several federal agencies for fisc ...

, enacted on May 5, 2017.

Background

The federal budget outlines the government’s plans for spending and revenue. In the United States, the federal budget request is first introduced by the president. The federal budget and all appropriations must then be written and approved by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

. In Congress the process begins with the

House Budget Committee The United States House Committee on the Budget, commonly known as the House Budget Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. Its responsibilities include legislative oversight of the federal budget process, ...

and the

Senate Budget Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Budget was established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. It is responsible for drafting Congress's annual budget plan and monitoring action on the budget for the Federal G ...

creating their own budget. After both houses pass a budget resolution, representatives and senators come up with a

conference report In the United States Congress, a conference report refers to the final version of a bill that is negotiated between the House of Representatives and the Senate via conference committee. It is printed and submitted to each chamber for its considerat ...

negotiating between both the House and Senate versions. Budget resolutions do not go to the president for a signature or veto. This budget does not directly enact the actual spending of the federal government, but it sets the amounts that each congressional committee is allowed to spend on the programs, agencies and departments for which it is responsible. Actual spending is driven by the final appropriations bills. The

Budget Control Act of 2011 The Budget Control Act of 2011 () is a federal statute enacted by the 112th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 US debt-ceiling crisis. The law inv ...

(BCA) had established spending caps on defense and non-defense spending, which were first applied in FY2013. Just before midnight on October 26, 2015, Republican and Democratic leaders reached an agreement, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, to increase the budget caps imposed by the BCA for fiscal years by $50 billion in FY2016 and $30 billion in FY2017, and temporarily suspend the

debt limit A debt limit or debt ceiling is a legislative mechanism restricting the total amount that a country can borrow or how much debt it can be permitted to take on. Several countries have debt limitation restrictions. Description A debt limit is a l ...

until March 15, 2017. The increased spending was to be offset by changes in Medicare, Social Security disability insurance, selling off oil from the strategic petroleum reserves, and other changes.

Budget proposals

The Obama administration's proposed budget for 2017 proposed spending $4.2 trillion and raising $3.6 trillion in tax revenue. The administration's stated priorities are creating jobs, building 21st century transportation, investing in medical research, addressing climate change, and increased funding for national security. Congress did not pass a regular budget resolution for the 2017 fiscal year during the 114th Congress, but did so early in the 115th Congress, over three months after the fiscal year had actually begun.

Related legislation

114th Congress

On September 28, 2016, Congress passed a

which extended funding at previous years levels up to December 9, 2016. The continuing resolution avoided a

government shutdown A government shutdown occurs when the Legislature, legislative branch does not pass key bills which fund or authorize the operations of the executive branch, resulting in the cessation of some or all operations of a government. Government shutdo ...

and directed funding specifically for protection against the

Zika virus ''Zika virus'' (ZIKV; pronounced or ) is a member of the virus family ''Flaviviridae''. It is spread by daytime-active ''Aedes'' mosquitoes, such as '' A. aegypti'' and '' A. albopictus''. Its name comes from the Ziika Forest of Uganda, whe ...

and flood relief in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The resolution did not include funding some members of Congress requested for the lead crisis in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

. The continuing resolution was named as the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act. In November 2016, shortly after the 2016 presidential election, the incoming Trump administration advocated for a second continuing resolution funding the government only until the end of March, to allow the incoming administration influence over the 2017 budget. The House Republican leadership acceded to this plan, although some lawmakers expressed concern that delaying the final appropriations legislation would distract Congress from other priorities during the beginning of Trump's administration. The final bill, the Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017, extended funding through April 28, 2017. It was passed by the House and Senate on December 8 and 9, 2016, respectively. The passage of the bill in the Senate was delayed after Democrats objected to the fact that an extension of health benefits for retired miners would not last until the end of the year, but a compromise was made to take up the matter in January.

115th Congress

On January 12, 2017, the Senate voted 51 to 48 to pass a FY2017

budget resolution The United States budget process is the framework used by Congress and the President of the United States to formulate and create the United States federal budget. The process was established by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, the Congress ...

, S.Con.Res. 3, that contained language allowing the repeal of the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

through the budget reconciliation process, which disallows a

filibuster A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out ...

in the Senate. The resulting bill, the

American Health Care Act of 2017 The American Health Care Act of 2017 (often shortened to the AHCA or nicknamed Trumpcare) was a bill in the 115th United States Congress. The bill, which was passed by the United States House of Representatives but not by the United States S ...

was initially publicly released by House Republicans on March 6, 2017. The bill was initially withdrawn on March 24 after it failed to gain sufficient House Republican support to pass it, but continuing attempts at compromise led to a new attempt to pass it in early May. The Trump administration released its preliminary 2018 federal budget request on March 16, 2017. The budget also proposed changes to the BCA spending caps for FY2017, with defense spending increasing by $25 billion (from $551 to $576 billion), and non-defense spending decreasing by $15 billion (from $519 billion to $504 billion). On April 28, 2017, Congress passed a one-week continuing resolution that extended funding through May 5, 2017. On May 1, a bipartisan agreement was announced on the

, which included all of the remaining appropriations bills. Near the end of the fiscal year, on September 8, additional disaster funding due to

Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey was a devastating Category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest t ...

was enacted as part of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018 and Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2017.

Total revenue

Receipts

Receipts by source: ''(in billions of dollars)''

References

External links

Status of Appropriations Legislation for Fiscal Year 2017
{{US federal budget United States federal budgets by year 114th United States Congress 115th United States Congress