what does an appropriation tell you 
appropriations tell us how money or capital is being allocated whether it s through the federal government s budget or a company s use of cash and capital appropriations by governments are made for federal funds each year for various programs appropriations for companies may also be known as capital allocation appropriation could also refer to setting apart land or buildings for public use such as for public buildings or parks appropriation can also refer to when the government claims private property through eminent domain in the united states appropriations bills for the federal government s spending are passed by u s congress the government s fiscal year runs from october 1 through september 30 of each calendar year each fiscal year the u s president submits a budget proposal to congress budget committees in the u s house and senate then determine how the discretionary portion of the budget will be spent through a budget resolution process the process yields an allocation of an amount of money that is assigned to the various appropriations committees the house and senate appropriations committees divide the money up between the various subcommittees that represent the departments that ll receive the money some of the departments include the following federal programs such as social security and medicare fall under the mandatory expenditures category and receive funding through an automatic formula rather than through the appropriations process congress also passes supplemental appropriations bills for instances when special funding is needed for natural disasters and other emergencies for example in december 2014 congress approved the consolidated and further continuing appropriations act 2015 the act approved 5 2 billion to fight the ebola virus in west africa and for domestic emergency responses to the disease the act also allocated funding for controlling the virus and developing treatments for the disease corporate appropriations refer to how a company allocates its funds and can include share buybacks dividends paying down debt and purchases of fixed assets fixed assets are property plant and equipment in short how a company allocates capital spending is important to investors and the long term growth prospects of the company 