How is the federal budget created? The president sends a budget message that lays out plans for spending and taxes to Congress, which then passes budget resolutions and appropriations bills that officially approve spending and taxation levels for the coming year, and the president approves or vetoes them.

Congress passes a continuing resolution, which raises both spending and taxation levels from the previous year’s budget in order to stay in line with inflation, and then transmits a budget message to the president, who signs the budget into law or vetoes it.

The president sends a budget inquiry to all federal departments to create a record of the previous year’s revenues and expenditures; Congress then uses the completed budget inquiry to write appropriations bills that must be deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court.

Congress develops budget resolutions that the president approves or vetoes before sending them back to Congress, where they are turned into appropriations bills and voted into law by a two-thirds majority of both houses.