Appropriations, rescissions, and reconciliation: What are they? What’s the difference? And where are we now.
This year, Congress has used multiple processes to pass legislation. The appropriations process happens every year, but rescissions and reconciliation are rarer. RESULTS volunteers have influenced all three. Our advocacy on these helps protect global and domestic anti-poverty programs. All three processes deal with money and the budget. However, they have different goals and impact different policy issues. Keep reading for an explanation of the three processes and where we are now. Click the links below for tables comparing these three processes and where we are now.
Click here for a chart comparing appropriations, rescissions, and reconciliation
Click here for a chart showing current policy updates
Appropriations: The yearly spending process
General information: Appropriations is how Congress decides what to fund each year
Congress goes through the appropriations process every year. It is the annual process to decide how much money certain government programs get. This is Congress’ “power of the purse” guaranteed by the Constitution. Some government expenditures cannot change year to year. Appropriations is for the costs that do change annually. The costs that can change each year are called “discretionary spending.” Global health and global education are discretionary expenses. This is why RESULTS advocates on global appropriations every year. Some U.S. domestic nutrition and housing programs are also discretionary. The discretionary budget operates on a “fiscal year” calendar. This is often abbreviated as FY, so fiscal year 2026 is “FY26.” Each fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30.
Each chamber of Congress has a committee dedicated to appropriations. (The “chambers” are the Senate and the House of Representatives or “House”). These Appropriations committees write bills that assign specific funding levels for each program. Each Appropriations committee has issue-specific sub-committees. For example, you have perhaps heard the acronym “SFOPS” thrown around. This is the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs sub-committee. SFOPS makes a global aid spending recommendation to the full Appropriations committee. The entire Appropriations committee must then vote on it.
For example, SFOPS may recommend the U.S. spend $2 billion on the Global Fund one year. The Appropriations committee would vote to approve or reject that $2 billion. The Appropriations committee must approve a final set of spending recommendations eventually. Once it does, the full Senate or full House must approve or reject the appropriations bills. Then, the Senate and the House must agree on their bills, and they become law. Usually in the Senate this takes 60 votes. Sometimes, the House and Senate can’t agree on an appropriations bill before the new fiscal year. Then, Congress can use a Continuing Resolution (CR) to basically just keep last FY’s budget in place for a bit longer. This gives them more time before a government shutdown is triggered.
Current context: The House’s SFOPS spending bill is ready. It contains promising global health spending. The Senate must still vote on theirs.
Currently, the House and Senate are working on FY26 appropriations bills. The House SFOPS bill already passed through its Appropriations committee. It includes strong funding levels for our global health priority issues. This is a great sign that RESULTS’ FY26 advocacy this year is working.
Soon, the Senate committee will release their bills. Then, both chambers will begin negotiations. They must pass all 12 appropriations bills. They can pass them separately or in one large “omnibus” package by September 30. However, the process will likely take longer. If so, Congress will likely pass a CR extending the current FY25 funding levels until December.
Keep telling your members why global health and education funding matters, and urge them to protect those accounts in the FY26 bills.
Rescissions: A process for cancelling approved spending
General information: A way to reverse spending decisions Congress already made
The White House asking for rescissions is a rare process. Before this summer, the last time it happened was 1999. This process asks Congress to reverse their appropriations decisions. When Congress approves rescissions this way, it gives up some “power of the purse.”
A rescissions bill can cancel money that has been appropriated but not yet spent. The White House can ask Congress to approve specific rescissions. When this happens, Congress has 45 days to approve or reject it. In both the House and the Senate, Congress can pass rescissions by a simple majority. If approved, some specific appropriated money will be canceled. If rejected, the money must be spent as Congress originally directed.
Current context: The first rescissions bill of 2025 passed in July. We helped spare some important programs. But we expect more rescissions bills.
A few weeks ago, Congress passed a $9 billion rescissions package. It clawed back funding for many foreign aid programs. These rescissions also cancelled funds for U.S. public broadcasting. Congress originally approved this spending this past winter. President Trump himself signed it into law in March 2025. But, the funds had not yet been spent. The global aid dollars remained unspent because the Trump Administration attacked U.S. foreign aid. This included the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Congress agreed to the White House’s proposed cuts, weakening their “power of the purse.” Critical global education, international development, and humanitarian programs had their funding taken away.
The Senate did add an amendment to the bill, which protected key global health programs. These programs included work on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Maternal and child health, nutrition, and food assistance programs were also spared (this time). This protection for lifesaving programs is a result of persistent advocacy. It sends a clear signal to the administration that global health funding is too important to cut.
But now that Congress has agreed to one rescissions package, more will follow. We expect the administration to send additional requests soon. More are likely the closer we get to the last 45 days of FY25. The administration can try to cancel any unspent FY25 funding. They can even try to cancel unspent funding from previous years. They may target domestic education and housing programs next.
But Congress can reject the attempt to claw back money. They must vote against any rescissions. Congress should ensure the money they appropriated earlier this year is spent as directed.
Reconciliation: A quick way to pass bills that changes the rules on taxes and spending. It’s not related to appropriations.
General information: A process that allows the House and Senate to pass big policy bills without large majorities.
Reconciliation is not related to appropriations or setting short-term spending levels. Instead, reconciliation is a way to quickly pass bills that change the policies for taxes and spending. It’s quick because the bills can pass with only a “simple majority” in both chambers. A simple majority means it can pass by just one vote (e.g., a Senate vote of 51 to 49). For most legislation, it must pass with a larger majority or face obstacles like the filibuster. Rescissions (see above) can also pass with only a simple majority. Whereas appropriations sets funding levels for discretionary programs, reconciliation affects those other programs and policies that usually don’t change every year. These are called “mandatory programs.” These include the U.S. nutrition program, the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)”. They also include U.S. health care programs Medicare and Medicaid. Tax policy can also be changed through reconciliation.
Reconciliation starts with both the House and Senate passing a “budget resolution.” The budget resolutions set government revenue and spending goals for various congressional committees. Each committee writes a plan to meet those goals. They can propose policies that would ultimately cut or increase spending or taxes. The House and Senate must negotiate to pass identical versions of the reconciliation bill. Then the president can sign it into law.
Current context: In July 2025, Congress passed a deeply harmful reconciliation bill. It’s called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” It cuts programs for basic needs.
In early July, Congress passed a reconciliation bill that included devastating cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. The changes to these programs did not go into effect immediately. These cuts will phase in over the next few years. We expect up to 20 million people to lose some health care coverage or food assistance. Many rural hospitals could close. Over 17 million children will remain locked out of the full Child Tax Credit (CTC) because their parents do not get paid higher wages. Immigrant parents will lose access to many benefits. Meanwhile, the reconciliation bill included trillions in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
Congress may try to pass another reconciliation bill this fall 2025. They could also pass bills to limit some of the harm caused by the bill. For example, they could expand the full CTC to those 17 million children locked out of the full amount. Tell your members of Congress how the reconciliation bill will impact you. Also, stay tuned for ways they can mitigate some of the harms.