The budget process for the U.S. Federal government involves both the executive and legislative branches of government. The President submits a budget to Congress, which then passes legislation to actually appropriate and authorize funds to be spent. The timetable for this process is shown in the section on the Budget Calendar—the dates are flexible, for the most part. Along the way, a variety of documents are produced, from both branches. The most important of these are cited here, but more are available on the web sites of the agencies involved. The Government Printing Office (GPO) maintains a web site which provides access to the most important of these documents, for both current and previous budget years.
See also Glossary of Budget Terms.