CDFM Questions Module 1 PDF

CDFM Questions from Siobhan 1. Committee Report - If committee votes to report a bill, the explanatory statement accompanying the legislation is written – this explanatory statement is committee report - Describes purpose and scope of the measure and reasons for recommended approval 2. Mark Up se...

CDFM Questions from Siobhan 1. Committee Report - If committee votes to report a bill, the explanatory statement accompanying the legislation is written – this explanatory statement is committee report - Describes purpose and scope of the measure and reasons for recommended approval 2. Mark Up session - Public hearing where committee members hear various viewpoints on the measure (date, place and subject is public) - After this hearing bills is considered in a mark up session where amendments may be offered to the bill and the committee members vote to accept or reject changes - Clean bill incorporate any amendments 3. Principles of separation of powers - Among executive, legislative and judicial branches was devised to allay the fear that monolithic centralized gov’t if had all power would lead to tyranny - Checks and balances maintain balance between authority of federal gov’t and rights/liberties of individual cirizen 4. Power of the purse - U.S. Constitution requires any bills (ex. Tax increases) to be initiated in the House of Reps - Article 1, Section 8 5. Origination clause - Article 1 Section 7 – All bills for raising revenue shall orginate in the House of Representative; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments on other bills 6. Judicial branch - Individual liberties are key responsibility of the judicial branch - If law found to be unconstitutional, judiciary has the power to strike down the law even it was passed by Congress and the President - Power in one Supreme Court 7. 6 Primary Committees - Standing Committees- considered permanent committee o ex. House and Senate Armed Services o ex. House and Senate Appropriations o ex. House Oversight and Accountability o ex. Senate Homeland Security and Gov’t Affairs o ex. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence o ex. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - Special/Select/Other- established for a specific topic area and can be either long- term or dissolved once the issue has been addressed - Joint- members of House of Reps and Senate - Conference- if bills passed in House and Senate differ, a conference committee with members from each respective chamber is convened to resolve differences - House Permanent Select Committee/Senate Select Committee- oversight of all intelligence agencies managed by DoD 8. Differences between legislation (bills, join resolution, concurrent resolution) - Bill- legislative proposal of a general nature- could be public or private (S. Res)  - Joint Resolutions- may originate in House of Reps or Senate, little difference between a bill and join resolution, become law like bills (S.J. Res) - Concurrrent resolutions- rules that has established that need to followed by both chambers; if approved by House and Senate then signed by Clerk and Secretary of Senate (S.Con.Res) - Simple Resolutions- matter concerning the operation of either House of Reps or Senate alone (S.Res) 9. Origins of legislation - Recommended by president, member of House or Senate or House or Senate committee - Any member of Congress may introduce a bill at any time while their chamber in session by simply placing it in the hopper provided for the purpose (with sponsor signature) - Bills are majority of total legislative proposals to Congress - Public bills are more commons - Joint resolution process- Article V Constitution- Congress may propose amendments with 2/3 vote in House and Senate. Congress sends proposed amendment directly to Admin of General Servcies for submission to individual states for ratification (3/4 vote) 10. Personal vs committee staff - Personal Staff- each member of Congress given a personal staff to help assist matters related to constituent support as well as lawmaking issues: o Paid of out allowances granted to each member o Serve at the will of the members they work for o Recent grads usually - Committee Staff- provide support to various members of Congress o Hire by committee chair and may be supplemented in their work by individual members’ staff who are placed in the committee o Serve at will of committee chair and not civil service employees o Specialize in matters before committee- draft legislation, review budgets, insisution memory 11. Engrossed bill (maybe) - After bill has passed one body (House or Senate) 12. Enrolled bill – it gets sent to president (maybe) - After a measure has been passed in identi 13. Conference committee - powerful and referred to as third chamber of Congress - they can make recommendations: o originating chamber recedes from all or certain of its amendments o other chamber recede from disagreement to all or certain of the originating chamber amendments and agree to the same o conference committee reports an inability to agree in all or part- however there is a compromise 14. Pocket veto (when Congress adjourned) - If Congress is adjourned and the president fails to sign a bill during the 10 day period, that bill does not become law 15. Line Item veto  - If the president does not favor a bill and vetoes it, the bill has returned the house of origin without approval, together with objections thereto 16. Permanent vs temp legislation (maybe? New section) - Legislation passed by Congress and signed into law is future that session of Congress only unless tracks about future which is words of futurity 17. Key Legislation Governing Financial Management a. 1921 Budget and Accounting Act- annual budget proposal, established office of management of budget and Gov’t Accountability Office *on the test!!! What did it create b. 1974 Balance Budget and Impoundment Control Act o Established house and senate budget committees o Created Congresional Budget Office o Established detailed calendar and the congressional budget process o Established framework ad guidance from impoundment o Increased controls around Anidefiency Act (ADA) statues c. 1985 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act d. 1987 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act e. 1990 Budget Enforcement Act f. 1990 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act o Established CFOs in specified agencies and cabinet departments o Tasked CFOs with overseeing financial management and financial information systems in the federal government g. 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) o Focused budget process on planning and outcomes o Required agencies to submit strategic plans o Required annual performance plans o Required performance reports h. 1993 Omnibus Reconciliation Act i. 1996 Line Item Veto Act j. 2010 GPRA Modernization Act k. 2011 Budget Control Act Legislation addressing Fed budget process - 1921 Budget and Accounting Act - 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act Legislation addressing fiscal controls and controlling deficit between revenue and spending: - 1985 Balanced Budget and Emergency Defiicit Control Act - 1987 Balanced Budhet and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act - 1990 Budget Enforcement Act - 1993 Omnibus Reconciliation Act - 1996 Line Item Veto Act - 2011 Budget Control Act Legislation addressing Gov’t Accountability - 1991 CFO Act - 1993 GPRA  - 2010 GPRAMA 18. Specific vs general (Siobhan didn’t say but implied because question on operation) - General appropriations- operations, maintenance, often provide for a broad range of costs associated with the operation of the agency - Specific appropriations- aircraft, missile, ships, research and development and most military construction 19. Diff between lump sum and general appn (lump sum are most ) - Lump sum – does not include program details in appropriations law (DoD APPNs) 20. Title 31 USC 1301 Purpose Statute- Number, time number and three sections - APPNs shall be applied only to the objects for which the APPNs are made, except as otherwise provided by law 21. Necessary Expense Doctrine - Expense or obligation must be necessary, will contribute materially or incidentally o Must be logically connected to the appropriation o Expenditure cannot be for a purpose that is prohibited by law o Expenditure cannot be otherwise provided in another more specific appropriation o Following are examples are irrelvalnt for applying the 3 criteria of necessary expense (not question) ▪ Saves money ▪ Fair ▪ Logical ▪ Implied elsewhere ▪ Common practice ▪ Sympathy ▪ Boss approved it ▪ Ignorance of law ▪ Good idea 22. Expense/investment threshold- less than $250K is an expense a. Guides correct appropriation to use for a specific purchase within the DoD for real property and equipment b. If system is above a threshold= investment (RDTE, OPN) c. Centrally managed items= investment d. If system unit cost is below a threshold and not centrally managed = RDTE or OMN and expense e. It increased to $350K could be either one 23. Types of APPN Described by Period of Availability - Available- new obligations, disbursements and obligation adjustments - Expired- disbursements and adjusting obligations are permissible but no new obligations/scope - Canceled- account is closed by treasury and no adjustments are allowed unless a correction - Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy – 5 years or until ships are accepted into service - Military construction- 5 years - Defense Working Capital Funds (DWCF)- no year APPN 24. First Statutory Exception to the Bona Fide Needs Rule- scenario of how this is allowed? SEVERABLE  - Severable= maintenance, security, grass cutting - Nonseverable= receive value at the end of the contract , research study, equipment repair - First statutory except to bona fide need rule is that DoD has authority under 10 U.S.C 3133 to award a severable services contract of up to 12 months and cross fiscal years. 3 exceptions o Limited purchases of inventory (170 days of inventory) o Purchases of supplies and materials during Q1 if next FY o Items that have long lead time and not deliver until end of FY 25. Multi-year contracts - Second statutory exception- gov’t may contract for the purchase of supplies or services for more than one year but not more than 5 program years. For non- severable services. - Fund on annual basis 26. Exceed Scope Change - If a contract mod exceeds the general scope of the original contract, the modification amounts to a new obligation is chargeable to funds current at the time the modification is made 27. Principle of Amounts -Know what they do and numbers a. Antideficiency Act - Violation to over-obligate or expend at these levels o Appropriation o Apportionent o Allocation o Allotment - ADA violations penalties may be: administrative or criminal b. Miscellaneous receipts statue 31 U.S.C. 3302(b) - An official receiving money for the gov’t from any source shall deposit the money in the Treasury as soon as practical without deduction for any charge or claim c. Augmentation Concept - An agency may not augment its appropriation from outside sources without some statutory authority to do so 28. Statutory Augmentation – question on scenario linked to Miscellaneous Reciepts statute - Ex. Current-year except for DoD refunds - Ex. Permanent ability to keep energy savings - Ex. Leasing of property and agricultural and grazing leases 29. Sequestration - Refers to automatic federal spending cuts that occur through the withdrawal of funding for certain (but not all) gov’t programs o Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm- Rudman-Hollings Act) – first provided for automatic spending cuts (sequesters) if the federal deficit exceeded a set of fixed deficit targets o Budget Enforcement Act created 2 new budget control processes ▪ PAYGO for entitements and taxes which requires that tax cuts or increases in entitlement and other mandatory spending must be covered by tax increases or cuts in mandatory spending 30. 1974 Congressional Budget Act/Impoundment Act  - President submit to Congress the proposed budget for the next FY by first Monday in Feb 31. OMB Circular A-11 a. Budget Formulation Phase (check notes) - 1- OMB issues guidance - 2-Organization develops draft - 3-Agency submits budget estimates to OMB - 4-OMB holds hearings on agency budgets - 5- President makes final decisions on agency budgets - 6-President transmits the budget to Congress 32. Fall Review - OMB and OSD conduct a joint review of the budget submissions from the military departments and defense agencies at the same time that OMB budget examiners are reviewing the budget submissions from other executive department agencies - Occurs Sept-Dec period 33. Passback - Results of the OMB review of the agency budget are provided to the agency in a letter from the OMB director to the head of the agency o Can change funding for individual programs, reduce or increase overall funding for the agency or direct additional funding be added to specific programs within existing funding levels 34. OMB key concepts a. Appropriation- form of budget authority that provides both the authority to incur obligations and the authority to liquidate the obligations (outlay) b. Budget Authority- authority to incur obligations that will result in outlays i. Includes direct enacted budget authority ii. Spending authority iii. Borrowing authority iv. Contract authority c. Constant Dollars- way for programs and budgets to be costed i. Based on referenced fiscal year d. Current Dollars- way for programs and budgets to be costed i. Based on fiscal year e. Reimbursable Authority i. Obtained through customer orders and may be documented in an agreement such as MIPR f. Revolving funds- organizations that perform work for other gov’t agencies or private parties with budget authority of orders received from customers i. Costs recovered when customers are billed ex. DoD Working Capital Fund g. Spend-out rate- amount estimated to outlay from each APPN year by year 35. Where does most revenue come from? a. Individual income taxes 36. Budget Enforcement Act a. Direct mandatory spending- authority for annual mandatory expenditures in permanent statutes (59% of gov’t spending) b. Discretionary spending- found 12 annual appropriation bills (27%) 37. New PPBE going to be called Defense Resourcing Systems (DRS) -maybe question - Importance of implementing GPRA with PPPBE to conduct strategic planning, developing performance plans, establishing performance goals and DoD is better able to justify its budget and uses the National Defense Strategy (NDS) 38. 3 steps in Congressional Action Phase - 1- concurrent budget resolution process - 2- authorization process - 3- appropriations process 39. Scorekeeping- who does it? Answer is CBO - Process of estimating the budgetary effects of pending legislation and comparing them to a baseline, such as budget resolution or to any limits that may be set in laws - Tracks data like budget authority, receipts, outlays, surplus/deficit and public debt limit 40. Authorization pg 79- not approporation - Authorization process does not give an agency the authority to obligate funds or permit the withdrawal of funds from the U.S. Treasury - Only appropriations acts permit those actions 41. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) - Defense budget authority, procurement quantities for major acquisition programs, military end strength, major military construction projects and new starts usually require annual authroization - This authorizes and allows programs to exist and provides recommended funding levels and policy - House/Senate do not appropriate funds to any program that has not been authorized 42. House and Senate Authorization Committees - Armed Service (Senate and House) - Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (House) - Select Committee On Intelligence (Senate) 43. House and Senate APPN Committees a. Defense b. Military Construction/Vet Affairs c. Energy and water development (provides for nuclear, army corps of engineers and civil works) 44. Earmarking - Congressional limits on executive branch authority by specifically designating a part of a more general lump or lump sum appropriation for a particular purpose o Not to exceed o Not less than o Exclusively for 45. Appeals to Congress a. Only secretary will provide departments position on appeal items 46. Know different between budget amendments and supplemental requests - Budget amendments- Estimates transmitted to Congress that amend (revise) budget estimates transmitted previously and on which to Congress has not completed action - Supplemental requests- normally transmitted to Congress as requests to provide funds in addition to amounts already appropriated for the ongoing fiscal year 47. Who is in charge of apportionment process? OMB 48. SF 132 - Once Treasury appropriation warrant is forwarded to the appropriations fundholder the agency receives the apportionment in this form then agency and its components may obligate the gov’t to pay for goods and services 49. Obligation authority - Budget authority once apportioned becomes the authority to obligate 50. Within 10 days of APPN act - OSD/OMB negotiates apportionments (OSD must request apportionment via SF- 132) - OMB has 30 days after appropriations at passage to effect an apportionment 51. Appropriation Warrants - First legal action taken after president signs the appropriation bill into law usually automatic action take by Department of Treasury into that law - It is a financial control document issued pursuant to law (usually appropriations act) and is normally for the otal funding amount stated in the appropriations law for the dept or agency involved 52. 31 U.S.C 1514 - Administrative division of apportionments - System shall be designed to o Restrict obligations or expenditures from each appropriation to the amount of apportionments or reapportionments of the appropriation o Enable the official or head of the executive agency to fix responsibility for an obligation or expenditure exceeding an apportionment or reapportionment 53. Obligation/Commitment - Commitments- administrative reservation of funds based on firm procurement requests, orders, directives and equivalent instruments - Obligations- legal reservation of funds are the amounts of orders placed, contracts awarded, services received and similar transactions during an accounting period that will require payment during the same or future periods 54. DoD FMR Volume 14 (management of funds), Volume 13 and Volume 9 (travel) - Law/regulation for management of funds and performance reviews 55. SF-133 - Report on Budget Execution and must be submitted to OMB quarterly - Covers each open FY for each account and displays the status of all budgetary resources for each year, listing the types and amounts of resources available 56. Manpower terms and concepts a. Actual strength- number of personnel in- or projected to be in- an organization or account at a specific point in time b. Assigned strength- actual strength of an entire service, not necessarily equal to combined unit actual strengths because individuals may be assigned but not join c. Authorized strength- total strength authorized by Congress/ also documented strength d. DoD civilian workforce- U.S. citizens or foreign nationals hired directly or indirectly to work with DoD from appropriated or non-appropriated funds under permanent or temporary appointment e. End strength- Strength at end of FY  f. Future years defense program (FYDP)- official report (database) summarizes resources provided to DoD g. Force structure- totality of units in a DoD component h. Manpower programming- process of compiling and projecting future manpower requirements; documenting, integrating into overall planning, programming and budgeting; translating into a form that provides a basis for personnel procurement, training and assignment i. Peacetime strength- authorized and programmed strength at the end of the fiscal year for active forces and selected reserve and appropriated-fund civilian employees in FYDD 57. Manpower structure and allocation a. First priority for programming manpower is major combatant commands need based on Join Chiefs of Staff Guidance b. Indigenous personnel are utilized to the max extent practical consistent with security and readiness (vs hiring a foreign person) 58. Manpower estimating a. Lapse rate- turnover rate X fill rate b. Positions to budget= Full time positions- (Full time positions times lapse rate) 59. DoD Manpower Utilization Policy - During mobilization or wartime, DoD manpower utilization policy is based on terminating or deffering activities not essential to the war effort in order to permit the reallocation of personnel to higher priority tasks - Assigning military personnel to those jobs that contribute to the war except (know this) o Military incumbency is required by law o Possessing military unique skills or experience is essential to successful performance of required duties o Military authority or discipline is requisite to the position o Alternate manpower is not available 60. DoD 1100.4 Guidance for manpower management 61. Presidential Auhtority to Activate Reserve Forces 62. Emergency essential (E-E) 63. OMB Circular A-76 64. Outsourcing vs privatization 65. Which of the following are inherently gov’t activities? 66. Cost Comparisons 67. Circular A-76 Today (might be a few questions) 68. Ethics (tested lightly) 69. Gifts to supervisor- no more than $10 70. Gifts outside sources- no more than $20 (or $50 annually) 71. Group gift- no more than $300 total (and if a subordinate no more than $10) 72. Conflicting Financial interested- which of the following is not a choice for dealing with a conflict of interest is an example question a. Recusal b. Waiver c. Divestiture d. Resignation 73. ERM page 130 74. What are federal leaders and managers responsible for? 75. FMFIA (1982)- every agency had to come up with internal controls 76. Connection between GPRAMA and FMFIA 77. Know what a risk profile is- and that agency has to do it 78. COSO Committee that establishes internal controls and ISO 79. FMFIA/DoD Manager’s Internal control program- know the law 80. Annual statement of assurance- material weakness? 81. ERM risks- addressing risks only with SILOs? What is overall effect of all of those risks? 82. Know 3 types of major risks 83. Risk profile. Where is it required to do risk profile? OMB Circular A-123 84. Maybe question on 7 components of risk profile 85. FISCAM a. Federal Information System Controls Audit Manual (FISCAM) b. Includes general and business process application controls 86. Greenbook- know 5 standards a. Control Environment b. Risk Assessment c. Control Activities d. Information and Communication e. Monitoring 87. Know difference between significant deficiency and material weakness 88. Statement of Assurance a. Unmodofified and modified statement of assuance