Which spending category has budget authority from the 12 annual appropriations bills?

• A. Direct (Mandatory) Spending
• B. Outlay
• C. Discretionary Spending
• D. Revenue

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is that only discretionary programs get budget authority through the 12 annual appropriations bills Congress passes each year. These bills specify the amounts departments and agencies may obligate and spend in that fiscal year, funding a wide range of programs like defense, transportation, and education.

Mandatory spending, on the other hand, is established by existing law and entitlement programs (like Social Security and Medicare) and doesn’t rely on annual appropriations bills. Revenue is income collected by the government, not a spending category. Outlays are the actual cash payments made, which come from both discretionary and mandatory funding, but they aren’t the category that per-year appropriations determine.

So the category tied to the 12 annual appropriations bills is discretionary spending.