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Can Zero-Base Budgeting Be Successfully Applied to the Federal Budget Process?

Published: May 01, 1979. Publicly Released: May 01, 1979.
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Highlights

This document is an article written by the Controller of the General Accounting Office. It discusses the possible application of a Zero-Base budgeting system to the federal budget, and the merit of doing so. While Zero-Base Budgeting structures a mechanism designed to give top management the capability to logically make judgments as to the relative priorities of programs competing for limited funds, it cannot easily deal with a lack of a single high-level decisionmaking point to handle all priority ranking and budget administration decisions. Compounding this difficulty are the wide variety of program, budget, and appropriation responsibilities exercised by various committees, each representing different and often contrasting political interests.

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