Pennsylvania state capitol. The governor's budget proposal includes line-item appropriations that could be an inspiration to Congress as it cleans up its budgeting process.

State-inspired line-item budgets can help Congress see the big picture

Mar 29, 2023 by Kurt Couchman

Most federal budget information is either too condensed to illustrate relative priorities or too detailed to sort through. Little information exists in an accessible, broadly surveyable format. It’s like trying to navigate but only with raw satellite photos and Google’s Street View™.

Congress could, however, borrow a best practice from the states: line-item budgets.

A line-item budget lists each program, the last-enacted amount, and the proposed amount(s) with a single line per spending account. It condenses the entire budget into relatively few, digestible pages.

Those involved in the details of budgeting need dense information, but no legislator needs, wants, or can use all of it. Most specialize based on their committee assignments or life experiences. On other subjects, they often rely on the expertise of trusted colleagues and advocates.

Engaged legislators do, however, need broad legal and budget context.

The legal context starts with the Constitution and includes major statutes and court decisions.
The budget context includes top line totals for spending including for agencies or other major categories as well as general sources of revenue.

The president’s budget request includes top-line totals. It also provides the details that specialists need in the voluminous appendix, along with analytical perspectives, historical tables, and supplemental materials. It does not, however, provide much of that middle ground.

By contrast, governors in many states provide legislatures with a line-item budget in addition to spending and revenue aggregates and programmatic details.

This document lists each spending line-item, current spending, and proposed spending for the budget year.
The line-item budget is updated as the budget proceeds through the legislature and is enacted.
A single line per item gives legislators and the public a general sense of resource allocation across all government activities.

In Pennsylvania, for example, the governor’s proposed budget line-item appropriation (see excerpt in Figure 1) supplements other budget documents including the full budget proposal.

Rather than hundreds of pages for all 17 appropriations acts (not counting Pennsylvania’s shadow budget) or various overview visuals, the latest proposed line-item budget was only 11 pages long. Legislators can absorb and refer to that level of detail relatively easily while still seeing the overall picture.

Figure 1: Excerpt of line-item appropriations from Pennsylvania governor’s budget proposal

An example of how state line-time budgets can inspire Congress to see the bigger picture: An excerpt of line-item appropriations from the Pennsylvania governor's budget proposal.

Source: Pennsylvania Governor’s Office

At the federal level, a related resource already exists.

The Congressional Budget Office produces a spreadsheet of spending projections, by budget account, for all federal spending accounts when it updates the budget baseline.
The February 2023 baseline lists 1,994 spending accounts.
Each account includes amounts for the prior year and projections for the current year, budget year, and the following nine fiscal years for both budget authority (amounts agencies can spend) and outlays (payments from agencies that have been paid out).

In addition, the Joint Committee on Taxation publishes a list of tax expenditures, sometimes deemed “spending through the tax code.” Granted, proponents of a consumption tax baseline take issue with JCT’s designation of business cost recovery provisions as tax expenditures.

These CBO and JCT products, however, display current-law projections and exclude many features of the tax code. A line-item budget could consolidate spending and revenue items, including proposed changes. It might also focus on the budget year to be addressed by the pending budget and appropriations legislation instead of the entire 10-year forecast.

Figure 2 illustrates a small portion of a possible approach to a line-item budget for the federal government. It resembles the tables at the end of reports accompanying appropriations bills, but it could include all spending accounts—appropriated and direct—as well as revenue line items.

Figure 2: Excerpt from a federal line-item budget

Department/Appropriation (Budget authority, $thousands)	FY2021 Enacted	FY2022 Enacted	FY2023 President	FY2023 House	FY2023 Senate
NASA (subfunction 252)	21,489	24,041,300	25,973,800	25,446,200	25,973,800
Science …………………………………………………….	7,297,000	7,614,400	7,988,300	7,905,000	8,045,700
Aeronautics ………………………………………………	845,000	880,700	971,500	950,000	971,500
Space Technology ………………………………………	1,100,000	1,100,000	1,437,900	1,250,000	1,263,850
Deep Space Exploration Systems ………………….	6,512,000	6,791,700	7,478,283	7,323,700	7,547,750
Space Operations ………………………………………	3,988,000	4,041,300	4,266,317	4,256,000	4,293,500
STEM Engagement …………………………………….	127,000	137,000	150,100	150,100	150,100
Safety, Security and Mission Services ……………	2,937,000	3,020,600	3,208,700	3,138,700	3,228,700
Construction/Enviro Compliance/Restoration ..	439,000	410,300	424,300	424,300	424,300
Office of Inspector General …………………………	44,000	45,300	48,400	48,400	48,400

Sources: OMB, House Appropriations, Senate Appropriations

In any case, Congress has several options to establish federal line-item budgets:

They could be part of the president’s budget request.
The Appropriations Committees could maintain such a resource, at least for appropriated accounts.
CBO and JCT could collaborate on a comprehensive, baseline line-item budget while adding the President’s proposals, appropriations levels, and other policy changes.

Regardless of its form, a line-item budget could give Congress a much-needed, manageable overview of federal spending allocations and revenue collections. It would be especially valuable if Congress considered a comprehensive budget each year with all spending and revenue.

A line-item budget could provide an overview of resource allocation across the federal government. This middle-ground information would supplement broader aggregates as well as the details that specialists need to manage related programs. Federal line-item budgets may be especially welcome to the many former state legislators who now serve in Congress and miss having them during budget season.