House Floor Consideration

Similar to other bills, a reported appropriations bill and its report (including printed hearings) must be available for three days prior to its floor consideration. In recent Congresses most appropriations bills have been granted special rules for their consideration, although appropriations bills are privileged and may be called up without a special rule. Nevertheless, appropriation bills are generally read for amendment, by paragraph, under the five-minute rule in the Committee of the Whole.

There are specific rules of the House including the Budget Act which impact the appropriation process. First, the rules prohibit unauthorized or legislative provisions from being included in or offered as amendments to general appropriation bills. Secondly, the rules prohibit non-emergency designated amendments from being offered to an appropriations bill with an emergency designation. Third, an individual appropriation bill may not exceed the suballocation established for the relevant subcommittee, and all thirteen appropriation bills may not exceed the overall spending allocation set in the budget resolution. These rules, among others, set the parameters for the floor consideration of appropriation bills under the regular order. However, special rules from the Rules Committee are often utilized to protect certain provisions in these bills from points of order, particularly those relating to legislative and unauthorized provisions. Ideally, all funding provided through the appropriations cycle should already have been authorized (established in law) by the Congress through its authorization committees.