Congressional Research Service

Legislative Branch: Fy2015 Appropriations Congressional Research Service

Publisher Marketing: The legislative branch appropriations bill provides funding for the Senate; House of Representatives; Joint Items; Capitol Police; Office of Compliance; Congressional Budget Office (CBO); Architect of the Capitol (AOC); Library of Congress (LOC), including the Congressional Research Service (CRS); Government Publishing Office (GPO); Government Accountability Office (GAO); and Open World Leadership Center. The legislative branch FY2015 budget request of $4.471 billion was submitted on March 4, 2014. By law, the President includes the requests submitted from the legislative branch in the annual budget without change. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees' Legislative Branch Subcommittees held hearings to consider the FY2015 legislative branch requests. The House subcommittee held its markup on April 4, 2014, and the full committee held a markup on April 9. One amendment was offered in the full committee, but failed. The bill, which recommended $3.3 billion (not including Senate items), was reported on April 17 (H. R. 4487, H. Rept. 113-417). The House passed H. R. 4487, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2015, on May 1, 2014, by a vote of 402-14. The Senate Appropriations Committee reported H. R. 4487, as amended, on June 19, 2014, by voice vote (S. Rept. 113-196). This version would have provided $4.3 billion. No further action on H. R. 4487 was taken, and legislative branch activities were funded through continuing appropriations resolutions (P. L. 113-164 and P. L. 113-203) until the enactment of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (P. L. 113-235, enacted December 16, 2014). Division H of this act provides $4.3 billion dollars, an increase of $41.7 million (1.0%) from FY2014 and $164.9 million (-3.7%) less than the request. Legislative branch funding, which peaked in FY2010, remains below the FY2009 level of $4.501 billion. In FY2014, the funding level was $4.259 billion. The FY2013 act funded legislative branch accounts at the FY2012 enacted level, with some exceptions (also known as "anomalies"), less across-the-board rescissions that applied to all appropriations in the act, and not including sequestration reductions implemented on March 1. The FY2012 level represented a decrease of $236.9 million (-5.2%) from the FY2011 level, which itself represented a $125.1 million decrease (-2.7%) from FY2010.