§661c Budgetary Treatment

Summary

Starting in fiscal year 1992, the President’s budget must show the cost of direct loan and loan guarantee programs and list how much new lending or new guarantees are planned with each funding request. New loan obligations or new guarantee commitments for 1992 and later can only happen if Congress provides money in an appropriations Act, sets a limit on funds for those costs in an appropriations Act, or otherwise gives authority in an appropriations Act. Programs that are entitlements (for example, the guaranteed student loan program and the veterans’ home loan guaranty) and all Commodity Credit Corporation credit programs that existed on November 5, 1990 are not subject to those approval rules. When authority to make new loans or guarantees is used, it must be recorded as new budget authority equal to the loan’s cost in the year the authority becomes available or when indefinite authority is used. Payments move from the program account to the financing account and are recorded in the year loans are disbursed or their costs change. Loans or guarantees cannot be changed to raise costs unless Congress has provided the extra money first. If cost estimates are revised later, the difference must appear as a separate subaccount showing the change in program costs and net interest; the law gives permanent authority for these reestimates. Agency administrative funding must also be shown as separate subaccounts inside the same program account.