Which action best completes the diagram showing how the federal budget is created?
Executive agencies submit budget requests.
?
Congress debates and finalizes the budget.
Congress returns the budget to the president.
The president signs the spending bill into law.

The budget is a detailed statement of anticipated revenues and expenditures during an accounting period. The Federal budget sets forth priorities and levels of spending, ways of financing the spending and a plan for managing the funds. Each year, the budget includes a record of actual receipts and spending for the fiscal year that was just completed, an estimate of current-year receipts and spending, and estimates of receipts and spending for the upcoming fiscal year and the 9 succeeding fiscal years.

For the Federal Government, the term “budget” often refers to the President’s budget submission, officially, the Budget of the United States Government. The President’s budget is submitted to Congress early each calendar year in accordance with the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, as amended, and represents proposals for congressional consideration. The Federal budget process provides the means for the executive and legislative branch to make informed decisions between competing national needs and policies, to determine priorities, to allocate resources to those priorities, and to ensure the laws are executed according to those priorities.

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, as amended, requires the President to submit an annual budget proposal to Congress, established the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) (formerly, the General Accounting Office). In 1974, Congress enacted the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which provides for the annual adoption of a budget resolution and established the House and Senate Budget Committees and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). These laws establish the processes by which Congress enacts and the President signs into law spending and revenue measures and have come to be known, collectively, as the Federal budget process.