Section 3690, that--
All balances of appropriations contained in the annual appropriation
bills, and made specifically for the service of any fiscal year, and
remaining unexpended at the expiration of such fiscal year, shall only
be applied to the payment of expenses properly incurred during that year
or to the fulfillment of contracts properly made within that year; and
balances not needed for such purposes shall be carried to the surplus
fund. This section, however, shall not apply to appropriations known as
permanent or indefinite appropriations.
The effect of the laws quoted, taken in connection with the
constitutional provision referred to, is, as above stated, to prohibit
any outlay of public money toward defraying even the current and
necessary expenses of Government after the expiration of the year for
which appropriated, excepting when those expenses are provided for by
some permanent appropriation, and excepting in the War and Navy
Departments, under section 3732.
The number of permanent appropriations are very limited, and cover but
few of the necessary expenditures of the Government. They are nearly
all, if not quite all, embraced in sections 3687, 3688, and 3689 of
the Revised Statutes.
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