Federal funds

“ That it is the opinion of Congress that the establishment of permanent and adequate funds, to operate generally throughout the United States, is indispensably necessary for doing complete justice to the creditors of the United States, for restoring public credit, and for providing for the future exigencies of the war. ”

“ To the extent that federal funds received by the state for any program, project, activity, purpose, or expenditure are changed by federal authority or exceed the amount or amounts appropriated in the general appropriations Act or supplementary appropriation Act or Acts, or are not anticipated, such excess, changed or unanticipated federal funds are hereby continually appropriated for the purposes authorized and directed by the federal government in making the grant. ”

“ Let me appeal to the citizens of Pennsylvania, how much time is taken up in this state every year, if not every session, in providing for the payment of an amazing interest due on her funded debt. There will be many sources of revenue, and many opportunities for economy, when the business of finance shall be administered under one government: the funds will be more productive, and the taxes, in all probability, less burdensome, than they are now. ”

“ The principal practical obstacle that prevents Congress from using the tax-and-spend power to assume all the general-welfare responsibilities traditionally exercised by the States is the sheer impossibility of managing a Federal Government large enough to administer such a system. That obstacle can be overcome by granting funds to the States, allowing them to administer the program. That is fair and constitutional enough when the States freely agree to have their powers employed and their employees enlisted in the federal scheme. ”

“ If the federal budget is not approved by the body vested with national legislative authority by
December 31st, the Minister of Finance will, on a monthly basis, approve funds for spending
units up to 1/12 (one twelfth) of appropriations of the previous fiscal year until a budget is
approved. The funds so provided for can be used only for liquidation of existing
commitments, salaries, pensions, social security payments, and debt service. ”

“ Shall it be said, sir, of the representatives of North Carolina, that near three hundred of them assembled for the express purpose of deliberating upon the most important question that ever came before a people, refused to discuss it, and discarded all reasoning as useless? It is undoubtedly to be lamented that any addition should be made to the public expense, especially at this period, when the public funds are so low; but if it be ever necessary on any occasion, it is necessary on this, when the question perhaps involves the safety or ruin of our country. ”

“ Several gentlemen have observed that it is necessary these powers should be vested in Congress, that they may have funds to pledge for the payment of debts. This argument has not the least weight in my mind. The government ought not to have it in their power to borrow with too great facility. ”

“ Under the terms of the 1970 Act, the States may use up to 1⁄2 percent of their apportioned Federal funds for highway purposes (except Interstate funds) for education and training of State and local highway department employees with two conditions: (1) The States may not pay more than 70 percent of the costs of tuition and direct educational expenses from this fund, which leaves the States to provide at least 30 percent of the costs; and (2) no Federal funds can be used for travel, subsistence, or salaries of the employees being trained. ”

“ With a few exceptions, the Federal Government does not pay for the entire cost of Federal-aid highway projects. Originally the States were required to match the Federal funds on a 50/50 basis, except in States with large areas of public lands where there have been statutory increases in the Federal share. In 1973 the matching basis was revised for most projects, other than Interstate, to be funded on a 70 percent Federal/30 percent State basis. The Inter- state System has been funded 90/10 since the 1956 Act, again with an increased Federal share in public lands States. ”

“ Their funds should be furnished by their own citizens, and thus should be fostered the taxpayer's watchfulness of State expenditures and the taxpayer's jealous insistence upon the strict accountability of State officials. These elements of purity and strength in a State are not safely exchanged for the threatened demoralization and carelessness attending the custody and management of large gifts from the Federal Treasury.
The baneful effect of a surplus in the Treasury of the General Government is daily seen and felt. ”

“ Congressional earmarks divert Federal taxpayer funds to localities without the benefit of a merit-based process, resulting in fewer resources for national priorities or unnecessary spending above the requested level.
I urge the Congress to send me a fiscally responsible bill that sets priorities. Americans sent us to Washington to achieve results and be good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars. ”

“ That funds, which shall be appropriated for the payment of public creditors, shall not, during the time of such appropriation, be diverted or applied to any other purpose, and that the committee prepare a clause or clauses for restraining the legislature of the United States from establishing a perpetual revenue. ”

“ A special federal fund shall be established to finance the rapid economic development of the inadequately developed republics and areas. Federal law shall provide permanent sources of finances for this fund and special credit terms, and shall determine the manner of operation of the fund. The Federation shall provide the means for a republic that is unable to finance social and other services with funds of its own, subject to conditions determined by law. ”

“ But the state is not obliged, as a condition of having the federal bounty, to deposit in the federal treasury funds raised by the state. The state keeps its own funds and administers its own law in respect of them, without let or hindrance of any kind on the part of the federal government ”

“ The President, therefore, welcomed the Clay proposal to finance most of the road program outside the budget, and he included it as a major feature of the Administration’s highway bill which he sent to Congress in March 1955.
Meanwhile, Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Roads, was holding hearings on his own highway bill—an expanded version of the traditional biennial Federal-aid authorization providing $1.6 billion annually of Federal funds which the States would be required to match with $1.27 billion. ”

“ The amendment (Byrd Amendment) required that if the projected expenditures which would result from a pending apportionment of authorized funds were forecast to exceed projected Trust Fund receipts, then the apportionment was to be appropriately reduced to prevent a deficit. ”

“ Providing that the State must have already made provisions for the State’s share of funds required each year for construction, reconstruction and maintenance of all Federal-aid highways within the State and that these funds must be under the direct control of the State highway department before any project submitted by a State could be approved by the Secretary. Liberalizing the 50 percent Federal–State matching funds by increasing the Federal share of project costs, on a sliding scale computed by formula, in those States having large Federal public land areas. ”

“ The States may obligate funds subject to the availability of apportionments and allocations and to any limitations on obligations which may have been imposed for that fiscal year. These limitations regulate the rate of obligations by imposing a maximum amount on obligations which can be incurred during a given fiscal year.
Once funds are obligated and a project is underway, progress payments may be made to the States for completed work. This liquidating cash is appropriated annually by Congress and is derived from revenues accruing to the Highway Trust Fund. ”

“ The other $11 billion will be provided by allocating $1 billion of new funds and converting one-third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes--for urban development, rural development, education, transportation, job training, and law enforcement-- but with the States and localities making their own decisions on how it should be spent within each category. ”

“ In order to do complete justice to the public creditors, either the principal must be paid off, or the interest paid punctually. The first is admitted to be impossible on any plan. The only plans opposed to the Continental one for the latter purpose are, first, periodical requisitions according to the Federal Articles; secondly, permanent funds established by each state within itself, and the proceeds consigned to the discharge of public debts. ”

“ Carried to an extreme, it allows no flexibility in applying income to the governmental services determined to be necessary at any given time, so that a case could be—and was—made for the point of view that the special commitment of funds to highway purposes had no valid significance—that all governmental revenues should be general revenues and all expenses should be defrayed out of general funds. ”

“ From fiscal year 1966 through fiscal year 1975, the Office of Management and Budget, through authority delegated to it by the President, regulated the rate at which Federal-aid highway funds were obligated in a given time period. It must be stressed that limitation on obligations, or impoundment, of highway program funds is somewhat different from impoundments for other Federal programs since there is no refusal to spend funds, only a slowing down in the rate at which funds may be spent. ”

“ There was no authorization in advance of an appropriation. The Act authorized the Secretary of Agriculture and the Postmaster General to determine where the funds should be used. It did not specify how the funds were to be spread among the States. The matching principle was established by prescribing that project costs be financed on a two-thirds State, one-third Federal basis. The funds were available until expended. No specific portion of the funds was made available for the costs of administering the program by the Office of Public Roads. ”

“ Rather than stretch out the work over 20 years, the PRA suggested credit financing with appropriations sufficient to amortize the bonds in 20 years. To this end, the report recommended that Congress consider permitting the States to borrow capital now to complete their sections of the Interstate System and use their future Federal-aid apportionments to repay the borrowings. To further promote rapid completion, the report suggested that Congress increase the Federal share of the cost of Interstate projects and also earmark funds specifically for the Interstate System. ”

“ The Federation may set up funds or contract credits and other obligations beyond the limits of the total expenditure provided for by the Federal Budget only when so authorized by the present Constitution or when the formation of funds or the contracting of obligations has been agreed upon by the Republics and Autonomous Provinces. ”

“ The states are now called upon to develop extensive educational systems, to care for the insane, to punish criminals, to maintain courts, to preserve order, to build roads, and support the poor, besides erecting public buildings, and in the municipalities providing water, light, paving and the other necessary improvements of modern towns and villages. To have the federal government, therefore, step aside and reach out into the states for additional funds for federal support means interference with the states' fiscal systems and in the long run the weakening of their financial power. ”

“ To finance the long-range Federal-aid program, including the funds specifically authorized to complete the Interstate System and an anticipated, but not legislated, escalating ABC program during the same period; to provide revenue wholly from highway-user tax revenues ”

“ The truth, of course, is that the federal government has no funds except those it extracts from the taxpayers who reside in the various States. The money that the federal government pays to State X for education has been taken from the citizens of State X in federal taxes and comes back to them, minus the Washington brokerage fee. The less wealthy States, to be sure, receive slightly more than they give, just as the more wealthy States receive somewhat less. ”

“ Where reserved for highway purposes these declining funds are still relatively proportionate to requirements. But in those States where legislatures have made diversions to the general fund, relief, the school system or oyster propagation, the present decline in revenues has brought retribution that is harsh as it is just. The legislatures that avoided finding money for relief or for their school systems must now find money to keep their roads from going to pieces. ”

“ To deliver a website that allows citizens to hold the government accountable for every dollar spent, the law and guidance require Federal agencies to implement mechanisms to accurately track, monitor, and report on taxpayer funds.
More broadly, the guidance establishes requirements for various aspects of Recovery Act planning and implementation. These requirements are intended to meet crucial accountability objectives:
• Funds are awarded and distributed in a prompt, fair, and reasonable manner ”

“ Program analysis is the continuous maintenance of the official records of the current status of all Federal-aid and other FHWA program authorizations together with the current status, cost, and physical characteristics of each project authorized for financing. Over and beyond this generalization, it also includes the determination of the apportionments of authorizations (and obligational limitations) which are made available to the individual States; the control and maintenance of the record of transfers of funds between apportionments ”