Natural Resources Budget Formulation

Federal Budget Cycle

In addressing park budgets, especially in developing a proposal for an increase to base, the natural resource program manager should be aware of the federal budget formulation cycle. The President's formal budgetary proposal to the Congress is submitted to the Congress in February, almost eight months before the October 1st start of the fiscal year for which it is being proposed. To meet this deadline, the Executive Office of the President (OMB) must have final recommendations from each cabinet agency (e.g., Department of the Interior) by the previous September, and the Department of the Interior must have final recommendations from its bureaus (e.g., NPS) by the previous June. The Director of the NPS therefore uses the spring of each year to assess its needs and develop a strategy to respond to the Department's instructions. Often there is a very short time between the transmission of the Department and Administration's instructions and the need to have initial budget requests to the Department. Therefore, it is critical to have well-developed needs information on hand, in the form of OFS requests.

Specific projects are included in PMIS, not in OFS. However, requests for increases in project fund sources, such as the Natural Resource Preservation Program, are requested through OFS by the appropriate program office with responsibility for that fund source. Therefore, for overall assessment of needs, as well as examples, well-developed project statements, in the form of PMIS requests, are also important.

Natural Resources Budget Formulation Table of Contents | RM#77 Table of Contents