With an industrialized nation, a growing population, and increasingly active government, Congress centralized the budget-making process through the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. Through the passage of the act, the president, assisted by the Bureau of the Budget, is now responsible for preparing and submitting the Budget of the United States Government for the next fiscal year to Congress each January. The budget would tell Congress what the president recommends for overall federal fiscal policy through three main components: (1) budget authority, or how much money government agencies are allocated to spend; (2) budget outlays, or expenditures; and (3) receipts, or income from taxes and other revenues. In most years, actual federal spending
