• Disbursement of federal money is based on specific laws and procedures.the whitehouse in washington dc image by Gary from Fotolia.com
  
  Federal Appropriations Law is a complex collection of statutes and court decisions that govern both the disbursement of federal funds as well as the ability of the federal government to collect debts. For all of these sorts of claims, specific procedures need to be followed. The basic principles that govern this form of law are fairly easy to comprehend. The principles of appropriations law concern the legal basis and basic procedure of the laws collected.
  
  

Claims

• The concept of a claim is the most important principle in this form of law. It is based on the idea that any act of Congress or statute governing the behavior of an executive agency creates a claim. A claim is a "right" that exists either to provide some person or agency with money, or to have the right to collect it. Appropriations law could not function without the basic concept of "claim."
  
  

Rights

• Every claim creates a right. A "right" in this case is something that derives from the nature of a federal law, a court decision or an administrative statute. Once Congress decides, for example, to finance unemployment benefits in hard times, those beneficiaries of these funds are given a "right" to these funds and have a claim against the government.
  
  

Courts

• Federal appropriations law insists that the court system be used only as a last resort. The existence of claims that give birth to rights assumes that there are procedures to get money from the government. Normally, administrative procedures are used to satisfy claims. Specific paperwork must be filed with the government in order to collect, and such demands must be based on law. The basic idea here is that no federal money can ever be given out without the consent of Congress. This means in real terms that all disbursement of federal monies must be based on a specific law and specific procedures.
  
  

Debts

• The government collecting debts is also central to appropriations law. The law states that as "sovereign," the federal government has not only the right to collect debts, but also the duty. The concept is the same as above: If the government is owed a debt though overpayment of an entitlement, for example, it has the legal duty (not just the right) to collect, because this is money that has been appropriated without congressional approval and has been given away illegally.
  
  

Taxes

• Tax debts are a totally different legal object. The General Accounting Office (GAO) has charge overseeing to all claims either for or against the government. However, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Code serve to lay the groundwork for tax collection, which is not governed by either the GAO or the Department of Justice. The law is clear that taxes are a special kind of debt since the state could not function without them.