TITLE:  ï¿½Use of the Chief Administrative Officer's salaries and expenses appropriation to pay certain Child Care Center expenses for fiscal year 2003, B-300673, July 3, 2003
BNUMBER:  B-300673
DATE:  July 3, 2003
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 Use of the Chief Administrative Officer's salaries and expenses appropriation
to pay certain Child Care Center expenses for fiscal
year 2003, B-300673, July 3, 2003

   B-300673
    
    
    
    
July 3, 2003
    
Mr. Timothy Blodgett
Acting Counsel, Immediate Office of the
     Chief Administrative Officer
U.S. House of Representatives
    
Subject:  Use of the Chief Administrative Officer's salaries and expenses
appropriation to pay certain Child Care Center expenses for fiscal
year 2003
    
Dear Mr. Blodgett:
    
This is in response to your request for our views concerning whether the
authority provided in the fiscal year 2003 appropriations act for the
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to make certain payments involving the
House of Representatives Child Care Center from the salaries and expenses
appropriations for the Office of the CAO is applicable to payments made
during the period from October 1, 2002 to the date of enactment of the
2003 appropriations act.  Payments made during that period were made from
the Child Care Revolving Fund, and you ask whether that Fund may be
reimbursed for those payments under the new authority.  For the reasons
set forth below, we conclude that the CAO should use funds appropriated
for salaries and expenses to reimburse the Child Care Fund for the
applicable payments made on or after October 1, 2002.
    
BACKGROUND
    
While Congress was considering eleven of the thirteen fiscal year 2003
appropriations bills, it passed a series of continuing resolutions to keep
the government functioning.[1]  The original continuing resolution, Public
Law 107-229, was enacted on September 30, 2002, to provide funds for the
continued operation of the relevant departments and agencies under the
authority and conditions provided in the applicable appropriations acts
for fiscal year 2002 until enactment of a fiscal year 2003 appropriation
act or October 4, 2002, whichever occurred first.[2]  Section 108 of
Public Law 107-229 provided that expenditures made pursuant to the
continuing resolution *shall be charged to the applicable appropriation,
fund, or authorization whenever a bill in which such applicable
appropriation, fund or authorization is contained is enacted into law.* 
Pub. L. No. 107-229, supra, 116 Stat. at 1467.  There were seven more
continuing resolutions for fiscal year 2003 providing for the continuation
of funding through February 20, 2003.[3]  While some of these extensions
also contained substantive amendments, none affected section 108 of Public
Law 107-229.
    
In January of 2003, the House and the Senate incorporated the eleven
appropriations bills under consideration into a single bill, H.J.Res. 2,
the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution for Fiscal Year 2003, and
agreed to the conference report (H. Rept. 108-10) on February 13, 2003. 
H.R. Rep. No. 10, 108th Cong., 1st Sess. (2003).  H.J. Res. 2 was signed
into law on February 20, 2003, as Public Law 108-7 (117 Stat. 11-554). 
The Legislative Branch Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2003 is found in
Division H of Public Law 108-7 (117 Stat. 345-384), section 108 of which
provides as follows:
    
*Sec. 108. (a) Section 312(d) of the Legislative Branch Appropriations
Act, 1992 (2 U.S.C. 2112(d)[4]), is amended-
(1)  in paragraph (1), by striking 'paragraph (2)' and inserting
'paragraphs (2) and (3)'; and
(2)  by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
'(3) The House of Representatives shall make payments from amounts
provided in appropriations acts for salaries and expenses of the Office of
the Chief Administrative Officer for the following activities carried out
under this section:
               '(A) The payment of the salary of the director of the center.
               '(B) The reimbursement of individuals employed by the center
for the cost of training classes and conferences in connection with the
provision of child care services, together with the cost of travel
(including transportation and subsistence) incurred in connection with
such classes and conferences.'
(b) The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to
fiscal year 2003 and each succeeding fiscal year.*[5]
    
117 Stat. 355 (codified at 2 U.S.C. S: 2062(d)(3)).  According to your
submission, in the period from October 1, 2002, to the date of enactment
of Public Law 108-7, February 20, 2003, the Child Care Center's director's
salary and any training or conference expenses were paid from the Child
Care Center Revolving Fund.[6]  Under authority of section 108 of Public
Law 108-7, the CAO would like to reimburse the Fund for the payments made
during that period.
    
DISCUSSION
    
It is a general rule of statutory construction that a statute is effective
on and after the date of its enactment and is not to be applied
retroactively unless it is clear from its language or by necessary
implication that a different effective date was intended.  39 Comp. Gen.
286 (1959); B-237791, Sept. 6, 1991; B-217565, June 27, 1985; 2 Norman J.
Singer, Sutherland Statutes and Statutory Construction S: 41:4 (6th ed.
2001).  As quoted above, section 108(b) of Public Law 108-7 expressly and
plainly directs that the authority provided in section 108(a) applies to
fiscal year 2003, which began on October 1, 2002, and each subsequent
fiscal year.  See B-217565, June 27, 1985.  There is no basis for
otherwise construing the provision as being effective prospectively only
from the date of enactment, February 20, 2003.[7]  Under the plain meaning
of section 108(b) of Public Law 108-7, the salaries and expenses
appropriation for the Office of the CAO is the proper appropriation to
charge for payment of the director's salary and any Child Care Center's
employees' training costs for fiscal year 2003, which began on October 1,
2002.
    
The fact that payments were made during a period covered by a continuing
resolution is not significant.  The regular appropriation, once enacted,
supersedes the continuing resolution and governs the amount and period of
availability since continuing resolutions are intended to be temporary
*stop-gap* measures.  See B‑209583, Jan. 18, 1983.  Indeed, section
108 of Public Law 107-229, the original continuing resolution, provided
that any expenditures made under its authority (as well as the extensions
provided by the other seven continuing resolutions) were required to be
charged to the *applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization* provided
in the enacted permanent appropriation for fiscal year 2003.  This
standard provision, included in most continuing resolutions, is designed
to ensure that to the extent possible, obligations incurred or
expenditures made under the continuing resolution are to be charged
against the funds provided by the regular appropriation act.  62 Comp.
Gen. 9 (1982).  In construing this type of provision in the past, we
concluded as follows:
    
*When an annual appropriation act provides sufficient funding for an
appropriation account to cover obligations previously incurred under the
authority of a continuing resolution, any unpaid obligations are to be
charged to and paid from the applicable account established under the
annual appropriation act.  Similarly, to the extent the annual act
provides sufficient funding, those obligations which were incurred and
paid during the period of the continuing resolution must be charged to the
account created by the annual appropriation act.*
    
Id. at 11-12.  See also B-227658, Aug. 7, 1987. 
    
In this case, Public Law 108-7, the enacted legislative branch
appropriations act, provided in section 108 that for fiscal year 2003 and
thereafter the Child Care Center's director's salary and employee's
training costs should be charged to the salaries and expenses
appropriation for the Office of the CAO.  Public Law 108-7 also provided
that for fiscal year 2003 the Office of the CAO would receive $105,363,000
for salaries and expenses. 117 Stat. 352.  Nothing in your submission
indicates that this amount would be insufficient to cover the additional
Child Care Center expenses for the entire fiscal year.  Also, the amount
appropriated for fiscal year 2003 is a significant increase over the
amount appropriated for the CAO's salaries and expenses for fiscal year
2002, which was $67,495,000.  Public Law 107-68, supra, at 115 Stat. 571. 
This increase may reflect in part the additional amount to be charged to
the salaries and expenses account by operation of section 108 of Public
Law 108-7.  Given the requirement in section 108(a) of Public Law 107-229,
the obligations incurred and paid for the applicable Child Care Center
expenses during the period from October 1, 2002 to February 20, 2003
should be charged to the CAO's salaries and expenses appropriation for
fiscal year 2003.
Accordingly, the CAO should use its fiscal year 2003 salaries and expenses
appropriation to credit the Child Care Center Revolving Fund for the
expenses described in section 108(a) of Public Law 108-7 and incurred
during the period from October 1, 2002 to February 20, 2003.
    
Sincerely yours,
    
/signed/
    
Anthony H. Gamboa
General Counsel 
DIGEST
    
    
The fiscal year 2003 appropriations act for the legislative branch,
enacted on February 20, 2003, authorizes the House of Representative's
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to use the Office's salaries and
expenses appropriation to pay the salary of the House Child Care Center's
director as well as certain training and conference expenses incurred by
the Center's employees for *fiscal year 2003 and each succeeding fiscal
year.*  The continuing resolutions in effect during the period from
October 1, 2002 to February 20, 2003, provided funds for the continuing
operation of the government under the authority of the fiscal year 2002
legislative branch appropriations act until the fiscal year 2003 act was
passed, at which point any expenditures made under the authority of the
continuing resolutions were required to be charged to the *applicable
appropriation, fund, or authorization.*  During that period the relevant
Child Care Center's expenses were paid from the Child Care Revolving
Fund.  Since it is clear from the fiscal year 2003 appropriations act
provision that the new authority to use the CAO's salaries and expenses
appropriation applies to fiscal year 2003, implying a retroactive effect
from the date of enactment to October 1, 2002, the CAO should reimburse
the Child Care Revolving Fund for the relevant payments made during the
period from October 1, 2002 to February 20, 2003. 
    

   ------------------------

   [1] The Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2003
(Pub. L. No. 107-248) and the Military Construction Appropriation Act for
Fiscal Year 2003 (Pub. L. No. 107-249) were enacted into law on October
23, 2002.
[2] Joint Resolution Making Continuing Appropriations for the Fiscal Year
2003, Pub. L. No. 107-229, S:S: 101 and 107, 116 Stat. 1465*1467 (Sept.
30, 2002).
[3] Pub. L. No. 107-235, 116 Stat. 1482 (Oct. 4, 2002); Pub. L. No.
107-240, 116 Stat. 1492 (Oct. 11, 2002); Pub. L. No. 107-244, 116 Stat.
1503 (Oct. 18, 2002); Pub. L. No. 107-294, 116 Stat. 2062 (Nov. 23, 2002);
Pub. L. No. 108-2, 117 Stat. 5 (Jan. 10, 2003); Pub. L. No. 108-4, 117
Stat. 8 (Jan. 31, 2003); Pub. L. No. 108-5, 117 Stat. 9 (Feb. 7, 2003).
[4] This was apparently a typographical error; the correct section is 2
U.S.C. S: 2062(d).  See notes following 2 U.S.C. S: 2062.
[5] The authority provided in new subsection 2062(d)(3) is similar to that
provided to the executive agencies in 1992, making agency appropriations
available to cover travel, transportation, and subsistence expenses
incurred by any federal employee or any person employed to provide child
care services to federal employees for training classes, conferences, or
other meetings relating to the provision of child care services.  40
U.S.C. S: 590(e).
[6] The fiscal year 2002 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act provided
authority for the payment of salaries and expenses for the House of
Representative's Child Care Center from amounts deposited in the Child
Care Revolving Fund set up under the authority in 2 U.S.C. S: 2062(d)(1). 
Pub. L. No. 107-68, 115 Stat. 560, 572 (Nov. 12, 2001).
[7] The legislative history of section 108 of Public Law 108-7, while not
necessary for the analysis given the plain wording of subsection (b), does
not provide any additional information.  The section was not included in
the original legislative branch appropriation bill for fiscal year 2003,
H.R. 5121, and does not appear until the enrolled version of H.J. Res. 2. 
The conference report on H.J. Res. 2 does not discuss section 108.  H.
Rept. 108-10, supra.