[Economics Report]:Fiscal Year


This is Bob Doughty. Welcome to the VOA Special English EconomicsReport. You can now hear environment news on Tuesday as part ofScience in the News.

Our first Economics Report is about a timely subject. Have youever wondered what is a fiscal year? A fiscal year is simply a wayto record and report financial activity. It is the same length as acalendar year. In fact, many businesses begin their fiscal year onJanuary first.

The fiscal year for the United States government starts onOctober first and ends September thirtieth. Other fiscal years beginin April or July. The American Institute of Certified PublicAccountants begins its fiscal year on August first.

Accountants add up earnings and losses at the end of a fiscalyear. These numbers are needed to know how much is owed for taxes,and how much is left for the next budget.

Congress is supposed to approve federal spending for the comingfiscal year by October first. This does not always happen.

President Bush gave Congress his spending plan for fiscaltwo-thousand-four on February third. That was only the beginning.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate must write andvote on their own budget resolution. This is a general plan forspending.

Then, a conference committee meets. Members from both houses areon this committee. They approve a final budget resolution which goesto a vote in both houses. But this is not the end of the process.

Committees in both houses must also approve the exact amount ofmoney for each program. This is called appropriations. Under thecommittees are subcommittees that make decisions about areas likeeducation and defense.

Bills to permit spending then go to the full House and Senate fora vote. The appropriations process often takes place at the sametime as the budget resolution process.

Government offices can close if the president has not signed anew budget by October first. But Congress can pass a continuingresolution, like the one now in place. Continuing resolutionsprovide money for government operations at current levels until abudget is completed.

All this cannot take too much time. Only four months into the newfiscal year, the president must give Congress a new budget and thewhole process starts over again.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by MarioRitter. If you have a question, send it to special@voanews.com. Thisis Bob Doughty.

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