Money & budgets
authorization
A law creating a program and setting its rules and spending ceilings. Separate from the appropriation that actually funds it.
In full
Congress runs a two-key system: authorizing committees write the laws that establish programs and recommend funding levels, and the appropriations committees decide what actually gets spent each year. Programs can be authorized but unfunded, or (routinely, in practice) funded after their authorizations lapse.
Where to go next
Keep going
Browse every term in the glossary, or see the vocabulary in motion in the How government works walkthroughs.
A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.