Money & budgets
discretionary spending
The roughly one-quarter of federal spending Congress sets each year through appropriations bills: defense, transportation, national parks, most agency operations.
In full
Discretionary spending is what the annual appropriations fight is about. It is divided into defense and nondefense, and it must be enacted each fiscal year or the affected agencies shut down. Because mandatory spending and interest are on autopilot, the entire shutdown-and-continuing-resolution drama concerns a minority of the budget.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.