Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the current services budget to determine: (1) whether procedures for developing current services estimates complied with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974; and (2) how to improve the usefulness of current services estimates to Congress.
GAO noted that the act requires the President to submit a current services budget to Congress showing the estimated outlays and proposed budget authority for the following fiscal year if the government maintained all programs and activities at their current levels. GAO found that: (1) the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) definition of policy for certain agencies and programs, although different from its general current services guidelines, is not inconsistent with the act's requirements, since the act does not discuss or define policy; (2) the use of different policy definitions lessens the current services budget's usefulness to Congress as a budget tool; (3) congressional staff involved in the budget process do not regularly use the current services budget because the Congressional Budget Office's information is more useful; (4) budget examiners' use of inconsistent estimating methods and OMB use of exceptions to its own guidelines could result in a current services budget developed to support the President's proposed policies rather than to highlight the fiscal effects of proposed policy changes; and (5) elimination of the legal requirement for the current services budget would help prevent the use of its estimates to support particular policies.
