1942: Budget Of The United States

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 provided a national budget system and a Bureau of the Budget to assist the President in the formulation and execution of the Budget of the United States Government. The Act directs the President to submit to Congress on the first day of each regular session a budget setting forth the Government expenditures and receipts for the fiscal year just completed, estimated expenditures and receipts for the current and ensuing fiscal years, and balanced statements showing the condition of the Treasury at the end of each of these periods. Information regarding the indebtedness and financial condition of the Government and recommendations for new taxes and loans are also included in the Budget Document.

Since continuous follow-through on the work programs and accomplishments of executive agencies is an integral part of the execution of the Budget, the Bureau has taken initial steps to develop satisfactory methods of reporting work programs, particularly with reference to the war program, so that the President may be kept currently informed as to the work proposed, work initiated, and work completed in all Federal agencies.

To improve the financial operations of the Federal Government, the President issued an Executive Order on Aug. 13, 1940, designed to provide better financial reporting of all Federal operations. This order was subsequently amended to provide a procedure which would insure that there would be no conflict with the function of the Comptroller General to prescribe accounting systems under Section 309 of the Budget and Accounting Act. On the basis of this Executive Order, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget and the Secretary of the Treasury issued a detailed Regulation on June 28, 1941, and again, in revised and improved form, on July 1, 1942. These Regulations formulated various definitions to clarify technical terminology. They also established uniform procedures and standard forms to be used by all agencies in requesting apportionments or the revision of apportionments of their appropriations, and in rendering monthly reports on the status of their appropriations. The new system is now in full operation.

On June 30, 1942, there was also issued a Regulation to be followed by Government corporations and enterprises in preparing and submitting annual reports of their financial condition and operations. The purpose of the Regulation is to establish, so far as practicable, a uniform system of reporting for the Government Corporations and enterprises. Study is now being made for the purpose of supplementing this Regulation to cover the subject of current financial reports.

The Budget of the United States is thus the expression of the program of work which the Administration proposes to carry out in a given fiscal year and the central instrument for financial control over the progress of that program. The Bureau of the Budget, in rendering staff assistance to the President in both the formulation and execution of the Budget, is engaged in a never-ending process of guiding expenditure under the current fiscal program as enacted into law, and in developing plans for work programs and expenditures for the following year.