I have always liked the month of September. It seems a time of new beginnings, the old back to school excitement and energy, more temperate weather (e.g., “a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness“). But here in the nation’s capital, September is also a month of endings. The end of September marks the end of the fiscal year for the government. This has not always been the case. For many years the government’s fiscal year ran from July 1 to June 30th of the following calendar year. The 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act (88 Stat. 297, Pub. L. 93-344) changed that. This law established the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), created standing budget committees in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, and changed the start of the fiscal year from July 1, to October 1.
As I wrote previously in The President’s Budget, the modern appropriation process really began in 1921 when Congress passed the Budget and Accounting Act (42 Stat. 20) which directed the president to provide Congress with a proposed budget each year. This act also established the Bureau of the Budget which today is the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). After the president submits his budget, the House and Senate appropriations