General Requirements 11.1. Coverage. The instructions in this Circular apply to all agencies of the Government and Government-sponsored enterprises, except as specified in section 11.2. Budget submissions must be prepared in accordance with these instructions, unless a specific exception is approved in writing by OMB. Requests for exceptions must be submitted to OMB in writing by August 1, as prescribed by section 11.6(a). Exceptions approved by OMB are valid only for one year. Questions concerning the application of these instructions should be addressed to the agency's OMB representative. 11.2. Exemptions. Although budget submissions are required from agencies with budgets not subject to executive branch review, general policies, justification requirements, and instructions on additional data are not applicable. Agencies not subject to executive branch review include the: --legislative branch; --judiciary; --Milk Market Orders Assessment Fund of the Department of Agriculture; --International Trade Commission; and --Federal Reserve System Board of Governors. The budgets of the following Government-sponsored enterprises are also not subject to review: --Student Loan Marketing Association; --College Construction Loan Insurance Association; --Federal National Mortgage Association; --Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation; --Banks for cooperatives; --Farm credit banks; --Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation; --Federal home loan banks; --Financing Corporation; and --Resolution Funding Corporation. 11.3. Definitions. For the purposes of this Circular, "agency" designates departments and establishments of the Government and "bureau" designates the principal subordinate organizational units of an agency. The following phrases and abbreviations are used in these instructions to identify specific fiscal years: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fiscal Year Description ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Past year-1 The fiscal year immediately preceding the past year. (PY-1) Past year The fiscal year immediately preceding the current year; (PY) the last completed fiscal year. Current year The fiscal year immediately preceding the budget year. (CY) Budget year The next fiscal year for which estimates are submitted. (BY) Budget year+1 The fiscal year following the budget year. (BY+1) Budget year+2 The second fiscal year following the budget year. (BY+2) Budget year+3 The third fiscal year following the budget year. (BY+3) Budget year+4 The fourth fiscal year following the budget year. (BY+4) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 11.4. Materials required for appropriation or fund accounts. Appropriation or fund accounts, as defined in section 11.5, are the basic building blocks of agency budget submissions to OMB and of the President's budget. More specifically, data are reported and presented at the account level in the budget and aggregated to provide the totals in the President's budget. In addition, appropriation or fund accounts are the basis for congressional action on the budget. Budget schedules and related print materials are required for the various types of appropriation and fund accounts, as indicated below. Instructions on the preparation of these materials are included in sections 30-36. Computer materials are also required at the account level. Instructions on submission of computer materials are included in sections 20-25. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revolving funds Trust funds Type of print General and special (including trust (excluding trust material fund accounts revolving funds) Management funds revolving funds) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Appropriations Required (if there Required (if there Required (if there Required (if there language sheet is language for the is language for the is language for the is language for the (section 31) current year or current year or current year or current year or budget year). budget year). budget year). budget year). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Program and financing Required. Required for funds Required. Required for funds schedule (section 32) and for annual and for annual limitations. limitations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedules on status Generally not Required for all Not applicable. Generally not of direct loans and required. accounts with direct applicable. guaranteed loans loan or loan (section 33) guarantee activities. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of loan Required for all Not applicable. Not applicable. Not applicable. levels, subsidy program accounts budget authority, and with direct loan or outlays by program loan guarantee (section 33) subsidies. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Narrative statements Required, except Required. Required. Required. on program and where there is no performance (section activity after the 34) past year. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule of object Required. Required for funds Required. Required for funds classification and for annual and for annual (section 35) limitations. limitations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personnel summary Required when Required when Required when Required when (section 36.1) personnel personnel personnel personnel compensation is compensation is compensation is compensation is reported in object reported in object reported in object reported in object class 11.1 or 11.3, class 11.1 or 11.3, class 11.1 or 11.3, class 11.1 or 11.3, except for FTE except for FTE except for FTE except for FTE allocations. allocations. allocations. allocations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of budget Required where Required where Required where Required where authority and outlays applicable. applicable. applicable. applicable. (section 36.2) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Statement of Not required. Required for Not applicable. Not required. |operations; balance Government-sponsored |sheet (section 36.3) enterprise funds, | credit financing | accounts, and where | otherwise required | by the Government | Corporation Control | Act or other laws. | Generally required | for other public | enterprise and trust | revolving funds. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schedule on status of Required upon OMB Required upon OMB Not applicable. Required upon OMB contract authority request. request. request. (section 36.4) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Schedule on status Required for certain Required where Not applicable. Required where |of funds (sec. 36.5) accounts. applicable for trust applicable. | revolving funds. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Receipt account data, which are included in the budget data base, are also used to derive budget totals. Instructions on submission of computer materials for receipt accounts are included in sections 20 and 21. While these data are not printed in the budget at the account level, receipt data are reflected in printed budget summary tables. 11.5. Basis for presentation of data in budget schedules. General rules on presentation of data in budget schedules are discussed below. Specific instructions on the format and style of presentation of required materials are found in section 30.4. (a) Appropriation or fund accounts.--Congress provides budget authority by appropriating amounts to appropriation or fund accounts for a specific period of availability (i.e., annual, multi-year, or no year availability). An appropriation or fund account is established in the Treasury for each successive annual or multi-year appropriation for a given purpose under the same or similar titles. However, for the reporting requirements in this Circular and presentation of data in the budget, appropriations and other types of budget authority provided to an account with the same or similar titles for the years covered by the budget are considered to be a single account under a single title. In addition, two or more accounts may be merged or consolidated for budget presentation purposes into a single account under some circumstances (see sections 11.5(f), (g), and 20.4(b)). (Note: Budget execution data required by OMB Circular No. A-34 are generally reported for each separate appropriation or fund account established by Treasury (i.e., each account with different availability) rather than at the level of aggregation required for budget presentation. (b) Establishment of new accounts.--Budget schedules may reflect proposals to establish new accounts, if approved in advance by OMB (see sections 11.6 and 20.4). Proposals for new accounts should be consistent with the guidelines described below. (1) In general, appropriation accounts should provide the basis for effective control over agency programs and should facilitate the presentation of information for both the congressional and the executive branch budget processes. Toward this end, proposed programs that are closely related to existing appropriation accounts should be included in those accounts. (2) Major new programs that are significantly different from others in substance or in type should be in separate budget accounts. (c) Reimbursements.--Advances or reimbursements lawfully credited to appropriation or fund accounts and the corresponding obligations will be included in the budget schedules of these accounts. Advances received under the authority of the Economy Act (31 U.S.C. 1535 and 1536) will be included as collections in the appropriation or fund account that actually provides the service or materials. (d) Allocations.--These are amounts of budget authority and other resources transferred to other agencies or bureaus to carry out the purposes of the parent account that are placed in separate Treasury transfer appropriation accounts. For the purposes of budget presentation, the budget schedules of the parent account will reflect these transactions as a part of that account's regular activities. Only object class schedules will identify allocations separately (see section 35.4). (See section 13.3(c) for the treatment of allocations of FTE employment. (e) "Feeder" accounts for revolving funds.--These are appropriation accounts whose budgetary resources are available only for transfer to specified revolving fund accounts. Amounts included in feeder accounts are reflected without separate identification in the presentation of the revolving fund to which they relate. (f) "Merged" accounts.--In some circumstances, amounts from several accounts are merged into a single account for budget presentation purposes. (1) When two or more appropriation accounts have been replaced by a single appropriation, amounts in the old accounts will be merged into schedules for the single account (see section 32.8(g)). (2) It may be desirable to propose merger of several appropriations into a single account and to request the budget year appropriation on that basis. The objective of account mergers is to permit flexibility in achieving program goals by managing and budgeting at a higher level of aggregation. While aggregation of accounts may be desirable, this objective should be balanced against other needs, including the need for public disclosure and review and control by the President and Congress. (g) Consolidated schedules.--A single set of schedules for two or more accounts of a bureau (or of an agency when appropriations are not made by bureaus) will be submitted for: --Federal fund accounts for which no budget authority is anticipated after the past year; --permanent appropriations of the general fund and special funds for similar purposes or where accounts contain small sums that have no direct bearing on programs financed by current appropriations; and --small trust fund accounts. (See section 20.3 for a description of account identification codes for consolidated accounts and section 32.8(h) for budget presentation of these schedules.) (h) Accounting adjustments.--Those accounting adjustments between appropriations authorized by 31 U.S.C. 1534 will be made without separate identification in the budget schedules. 11.6. Advance approval. Advance approval by OMB is required for exceptions to requirements in this Circular, changes in the format of justification materials, and changes in budget or activity structure, data classifications assigned at the account level, and appropriations language, as described below. (a) Exceptions to Circular No. A-11 requirements.--Requests for exceptions to specific requirements of this Circular must be submitted to OMB, with full written justification, by August 1. Approved exceptions are valid only for the year in which they are granted, although they may apply to all years shown in the budget. (b) Justification materials.--Specific information and format requirements are determined in consultation with OMB representatives. Advance approval must be obtained before modifications are made to the standard justification material requirements used to present program and financial information. (c) Budget structure.--As a general rule, approval for changes in budget structure should be requested by October 1, unless OMB specifies an earlier due date. Changes dependent on pending decisions or resulting from late congressional action or from other circumstances beyond agency control should be submitted as soon as possible after October 1. Changes in budget structure include establishment of new accounts (see section 20.4), changes in account titles, account mergers, changes in sequence of existing acounts, and new methods of financing. When prospective internal reorganizations are likely to necessitate budget structure changes, OMB approval of the revised budget structure should be obtained prior to the reorganization. A request for such approval, in the form of a letter or memorandum, must be submitted as early as possible. Until requests are approved, budget materials should be based on the existing structure. If changes are approved, budget schedules and other materials will be revised accordingly. (d) Activity structure.--Agency proposals to change the activity structure, including the use of subactivities, in the program by activities section of the program and financing schedules should be submitted prior to the initial budget submission (see section 32.2). (e) Functional, subfunctional, character, and receipt classification.--Reorganizations, program reorientations, or revisions in appropriation structure sometimes require changes in functional, subfunctional, character, and receipt classifications. Requests for changes in these classifications for existing accounts should be made prior to the initial budget submission (see sections 20.4 and 25.4). (f) Appropriations language.--Advance approval is required when substantive changes in appropriations language are proposed. Such changes should accompany the initial budget submission (see section 31.3). 11.7. Responsibilities in reporting data. In preparing the budget submission, data will be reported as accurately as possible. (a) Past year data.--Obligations for the past year must have firm accounting support and be consistent with law, regulations, and any reports made to Congress. Agency budget officers are responsible for ensuring that offsetting collections, appropriations, transfers, outlays, and balances for the past year agree with the corresponding amounts reported in the final Report on Budget Execution (Standard Form 133) and to the Department of the Treasury. Agency budget and accounting offices should review and reconcile differences in data, to the extent possible, prior to reporting year-end data to the Department of the Treasury and to OMB (see section 32.9). Particular attention should be paid to resolving differences in past year outlays and receipts. (b) Current year data.--The current year's transactions will be estimated as accurately as possible within the limits of funds presently available or expected to become available during the year. (c) Certification of obligations.--Section 1108(c) of Title 31, United States Code, requires the head of each Federal agency, in connection with submission of all requests for proposed appropriations to OMB, to certify that any statement of obligations furnished consists of valid obligations, as defined in section 1501(a) of that title. The certification may be in the form of the following paragraph: "As required by section 1108(c) of Title 31, United States Code, I am reporting that all statements of obligations furnished to the Office of Management and Budget in connection with the [name of agency] requests for proposed appropriations for the fiscal year 19[BY] consist of valid obligations as defined in section 1501(a) of that title." This certification will be included in the summary and highlight memorandum (see section 15.1) or transmitted separately by the agency head at a later date. In any event, it must be received not later than November 20. The primary responsibility for reviewing the status of its accounts rests with the agency managing the appropriation or fund. Agencies should recognize that the reports required by the Department of the Treasury form the basis for compilation and publication of data on over-expended or over-obligated appropriation or fund accounts resulting from agency operations that may be in violation of the Antideficiency Act (31 U.S.C. 1341). Disposition of over-expended or over-obligated amounts is the sole responsibility of the agency managing the appropriation or fund. Agency heads should be aware that, in connection with those reports, they are certifying that obligations are valid and that the amount of obligations or expenditures incurred is proper. (d) Consistency in reporting transfers.--Responsibilities of the paying or administering agency and the receiving agencies or accounts for estimating and reporting charges and credits between accounts are discussed below. (1) Where allocations are used.--When reporting budgetary resources, the agency administering the parent account will compile and submit all necessary material (see section 11.5(d)). That agency will obtain whatever information it needs for this purpose from the receiving agencies. See section 13.3(c) for treatment of allocations of FTE employment. (2) Where payments are made to other appropriations, to revolving funds, to management funds, and to trust funds.--The paying agency will include in its schedules obligations in the amount of the payment. The receiving agency will report such amounts as offsetting collections credited to the appropriation, fund, or receipt account, as appropriate (see sections 14.2, 32.3, and 32.4). (3) Adjustments of appropriations and balances.--Where there are authorized transfers between accounts that represent adjustments in the amounts appropriated or in balances previously appropriated, both the paying and receiving agencies will be responsible for seeing that the amounts included are identical in the schedules of both the losing and gaining accounts.