text: Chapter 2
  SECTION II – FISCAL LAW
  2-19. Commanders at all levels rely on their financial managers to analyze commander’s tasks and
  priorities and to identify the resource requirements that will enable the commander to accomplish the
  mission. In funding the force, the financial manager resources command requirements, identifies, acquires,
  distributes and controls funds necessary to support mission execution and enables commanders to make
  resource informed decisions. Every financial manager must develop an expert knowledge of applicable
  fiscal law governing the use of public funds in support of Army organizations and missions. This section
  gives a brief overview of the applicable statutes governing the use of public funds; however, this
  information is not all-inclusive and may change with the passage of future legislation or issuance of future
  decisions by the United States Comptroller General. Thus, financial managers who have questions
  regarding fiscal law and the proper use of public funds in support of operations should contact their local
  SJA for a legal opinion regarding that particular question or situation.
  2-20. Fiscal law, from an FM perspective, is the body of statutes and regulations (e.g., legal opines, Public
  Law, U.S. Code, and the U.S. Constitution) that govern the availability and use of public funds to support
  military operations. Failure to apply fiscal law principles properly may lead to unauthorized expenditures of
  funds and consequent administrative or criminal sanctions against those individuals deemed responsible.
  2-21. Congress’s “power of the purse” emanates from the United States Constitution, specifically:
  • U.S. Constitution, Art. I, § 8 grants Congress the power to “…lay and collect Taxes,
  Duties, Imports, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense
  and general Welfare of the United States… To raise and support armies, but no
  appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; … To
  provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such
  part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, ….”
  • U.S. Constitution, Art. I. § 9, provides that “No Money Shall be drawn from the
  Treasury but in Consequence of an Appropriation made by Law.”
  2-22. Thus, Army funding results in consequence of appropriations provided for in legislation passed by
  the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the U.S. President. The over-arching fiscal rule of thumb
  governing the use of public funds is "…that the expenditure of public funds is proper only when authorized
  by Congress, not that public funds may be expended unless prohibited by Congress." (United States v.
  MacCollom, 426 U.S. 317 (1976)). In other words, authority to spend public funds must be expressed in
  legislation either in the form of appropriations legislation or existing United States Code. A time tested
  precedent of this principle is 10 USC 2011 (often referred to as the Special Operations Forces (SOF)
  exception) which frequently has Congressional stipulations that vary by country on either annual or multi-
  year exceptions or prohibitions.
  BASIC TENETS OF FISCAL LAW
  2-23. Congress has emplaced legal limitations on government agencies’ use of appropriations to fund their
  activities, missions, and operations. These primary limitations are in the areas of time, purpose and amount
  with respect to the use of public funds. This section provides a brief summary of these limitations;
  however, for a more detailed discussion of these limitations, the financial manager should refer to the
  actual statute prescribing a particular limitation or prohibition and confer with the SJA for the proper
  interpretation of those statutes. Financial managers must use the principles of time, purpose, and amount in
  order to ensure compliance with existing statute governing the use of fiscal resources in fulfilling
  requirements.
  TIME LIMITATION
  2-24. Appropriations are available for limited periods. An agency may obligate only within the time limits
  applicable to the appropriation. The primary restriction under the “Time” limitation is the “Bona Fide