APPROPRIATIONS, American System of. The Constitution of the United States provides that no money shall be drawn from the treasury except under appropriations made by law (Art. I, Sec. IX, ¶ 7) and that no ap propriation for the army shall be made for more than two years (Art. I, Sec. VIII, ¶ 12). In 1789, when the Treasury Department was established, Congress directed the Secretary to prepare estimates of public expenditures, but as explained elsewhere (see Bunters, AMERI CAN) this is purely a formal duty and the executive estimates (known as the Book of Estimates) merely form a basis from which Congress can formulate the plans for revenues and expenditures. Thus the only manner in which the Executive Department participates in the framing of appropriation bills is through the presidential power of veto, and accordingly the Legislature may be said to have complete control over the expenditure of public funds. The Constitution provides that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives (Art. I, Sec. VII, ¶ 1), wherefore it was easily assumed that, having the initiative in raising revenues, the House should also have similar control over expenditures. This right has been jealously guarded, but the placing of control of the ex penditure of public funds in the hands of Con gress has resulted in scattering the responsi bility, though this latter evil was not so notice able when the committee on ways and means had charge of both revenue and appropriation bills. In 1865, however, the task of preparing appropriation bills was taken away from this committee and delegated to a special committee on appropriations. In 1880 and 1885 still more sweeping changes were made, the committee on appropriations being deprived of some of its powers which were given to new committees created to prepare bills for separate depart ments of administration. These bills were 14 in number, of which the committee on appro priations was to have charge of six, namely: (1) Legislative, executive andjudicial; (2) District of Columbia; (3) fortifications, (4) pensions; (5) sundry civil; (6) deficiency. The other appropriation bills with the com mittees handling them were as follows: (1) Agriculture, committee on agriculture; (2-3) army and military academy, committee on mil itary affairs; (4) diplomatic and consular, committee on foreign affairs; (5) Indian, com mittee on Indian affairs; (6) naval, com mittee on naval affairs; (7) post-office, com mittee on post-office, and (8) rivers and har bors, committee on rivers and harbors. With
this divided initiative there is a tendency for each committee to magnify the importance of the work intrusted to it and to attempt log rolling in an effort to secure as large an appro. priation as possible, regardless of the needs or merits of claims of other departments.
Annual Appropriations.— Appropriations are divided into three classes: Annual, per manent specific and permanent annual. The first class is enumerated above. Under an act of 20 June 1874, unexpended balances of ap propriations (with few exceptions) remaining in the treasury books for two fiscal years are to be carried to the surplus fund and turned back into the treasury. The exceptions con sisted of : (1) Permanent specific appropria tions; (2) continuing appropriations such as those for rivers and harbors and public works; (3) pay of the and navy marine corps, since they often participate in long cruises; (4) claims arising under a treaty with Great Britain and pre-existing contracts. Under the head of permanent specific appropriations come those specifically made for certain definite ends but which remain available until entirely expended, such as appropriations for improving rivers and harbors and the construction of public works. Among the permanent annual appro priations (which do not require annual vote but which rest upon prior enactment of laws) are payments of interest on public debt, the re quirements for the sinking fund, refunds' and taxes collected through error, salaries of judges and expenses of collecting customs duties. The salary items contained in the regular appropria tion bills might properly be classed under the head of permanent annual appropriations, since they are authorized in other statutes. An ap propriation bill not only may grant money for a specific and definite object and for a given year, but may authorize the making of con tracts that will necessitate expenditures for many years to come. Though the objects of these future expenditures may be specified and the amounts apparently restricted, the con templated new works, once begun, may consti tute a basis for new demands, the ultimate cost of which cannot be foreseen.