Congress provides budget authority in laws other
than appropriations acts. In fact, while annual appropriations
acts control the spending for the majority of
Federal programs, they only control about 35 percent
of the total spending in a typical year. Authorizing
legislation controls the rest of the spending. A distinctive
feature of these laws is that they provide agencies
with the authority to collect or to spend money without
first requiring the Appropriations Committees to enact
funding. This category of spending includes interest the
Government pays on the public debt and the spending
of several major programs, such as Social Security,
Medicare and Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and
Federal employee retirement.