Money & budgets
budget resolution
Congress's annual fiscal blueprint: total spending and revenue targets. It never goes to the President and never becomes law, but it can unlock reconciliation.
In full
A concurrent resolution setting the year's fiscal framework, top-line spending, revenue, and deficit figures that appropriators are supposed to live within. Because it is internal to Congress it has no legal force, but it is the required first step for budget reconciliation, the filibuster-proof process, which is why 'passing a budget' can matter enormously even though the budget itself binds no one.
Also written as: reconciliation
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.