appropriation

1. The act of appropriating.
2. 1. Something appropriated, especially public funds set aside for a specific purpose.
   2. A legislative act authorizing the expenditure of a designated amount of public funds for a specific purpose.

1. setting aside land for a public use.
Example: Abel plans to develop a subdivision in Pleasantville. In order to obtain permission from the city council, Abel is required to appropriate 2 acres to the city for construction of an elementary school.

2. money set aside by a budgetary authority for a specific purpose.
Example: The town provided a $1 million appropriation for construction of a library.

1. Authorization of a governmental unit to spend money within specified restrictions such as amount, time period, and objective. There must be prior approval for such expenditure.

2. Distribution of net income to various accounts.

3. Allocation of retained earnings for a designated purpose such as for plant expansion. See also Appropriated Retained Earnings.

noun

1. Something, as a gift, granted for a definite purpose: grant, subsidy, subvention. See give/take/reciprocity.
2. The act of taking something for oneself: arrogation, assumption, preemption, seizure, usurpation. See give/take/reciprocity.

Definition: allocation, setting aside
Antonyms: keeping, refusal, rejection

n

Definition: stealing
Antonyms: bestowal, giving, repayment, return

The allocation of money by public officials for specific purposes. Control by the legislature over the raising of revenue and the expenditure of public funds has been seen historically as an essential requirement of democratic government. In practice in the United Kingdom, control over the purse strings lies with the government. Theoretically, back-bench members of the House of Commons may reduce or delete proposed appropriations, but they are unable to initiate expenditures without the agreement of the executive. No such restrictions exist in the United States Congress, where legislative control over appropriations is complete (apart from rare Presidential vetoes) and, as such, a bulwark of the considerable power of the legislature.

— David Mervin

Congress holds the “power of the purse,” the power to control how the government spends money. Neither the military nor any civilian agency of the federal government can spend any federal money unless it receives an appropriation from Congress. Americans inherited this powerful check on the executive branch from the early struggles between the British Parliament and the king. The Constitution provided for the popularly elected House to originate all revenue and appropriations bills and for the Senate to vote on these bills and to amend them.

Control of federal spending carries great power and influence, so there is always much competition for assignment to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Every bill that authorizes federal spending to carry out its programs must go to the Appropriations Committees, which decide whether to fund the programs fully, partially, or not at all. During each session, the Appropriations Committees will also hear extensive testimony about the operations and costs of executive branch agencies. Appropriations bills are regularly the last major bills enacted each session. It is not unusual for Congress to debate an appropriations bill late at night or early in the morning, with the clock ticking toward adjournment.

Not until after the Civil War did Congress create separate Appropriations Committees, to relieve the burden of appropriations from committees charged with raising revenue and to give Congress better control over federal spending. In the House, the Ways and Means Committee handled appropriations until 1865. In the Senate, the Finance Committee oversaw appropriations until 1867. The Appropriations Committees are the largest in both bodies, with 61 members in the House and 28 in the Senate.

See also Recision bills

Sources

• Richard F. Fenno, Jr., The Power of the Purse: Appropriations Politics in Congress (Boston: Little, Brown, 1966)

The designation by the government or an individual of the use to which a fund of money is to be applied. The selection and setting apart of privately owned land by the government for public use, such as a military reservation or public building. The diversion of water flowing on public domain from its natural course by means of a canal or ditch for a private beneficial use of the appropriator.

An appropriation bill is a proposal placed before the legislative branch of the government by one or a group of its members to earmark a particular portion of general revenue or treasury funds for use for a governmental objective. Federal appropriation bills can originate only in the House of Representatives as mandated by Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution. Once an appropriation law is enacted, a definite amount of money is set aside so that public officials can pay incurred or anticipated expenditures. When a law authorizes funds to be used for a particular purpose, it is known as a specific appropriation.

The appropriation of money by an individual occurs within the context of a debtor-creditor relationship. If a creditor is owed two separate debts by the same debtor who makes a payment without specifying the debt to which it is to be applied, the creditor can appropriate the payment to either debt.

Appropriation also refers to the physical taking and occupation of property by the government or its actual, substantial interference with the owner's right to use the land according to personal wishes by virtue of the government's power of eminent domain.

This right of an individual to use water that belongs to the public is embodied in the prior appropriation doctrine applied in arid western states where water supplies are not available in sufficient quantity to all who might need them. An individual landowner who first diverts water for personal benefit is entitled to its continued use as long as there is a reasonable need and the water is actually used.

See: federal budget; water rights.

The grant of money by a legislature for some specific purpose. The authority to grant appropriations, popularly known as the power of the purse, gives legislatures a powerful check over executive branches and judicial branches, for no public money can be spent without legislative approval. Congress, for example, can approve or reject the annual budget requests of the executive branch for its agencies and programs, thereby influencing both domestic and foreign policy. (See also checks and balances and pork-barrel legislation.)

Look up appropriation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Appropriation is the act of taking possession of or assigning purpose to properties or ideas and is important in many topics, including:

• Appropriation (sociology) in relation to the spread of knowledge
• Appropriation (art)
  • Appropriation (music) in reference to the re-use and proliferation of different types of music
• Appropriation (economics) origination of human ownership of previously unowned natural resources such as land
• Appropriation (law) as a component of government spending
• Cultural appropriation is the borrowing, or theft, of an element of cultural expression of one group by another.
• The tort of appropriation is one form of invasion of privacy
• Appropriation (By Any Other Name)

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