1. Identify and describe the budget’s fundamental features. How do these features both benefit and constrain decision-makers?

2. What are the six major stages of the federal budget cycle?

3. What are uncontrollable expenditures? Identify the types of government spending that fall into this category. What is the impact of uncontrollable expenditures on the budget process?

4. What is the deficit? What is the effect of the deficit on budgeting?

5. Describe the ways that government agencies may gain funding or reallocate funding without going through the normal budget processes.

6. Define incremental budgeting. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of incremental budgeting.

7. Identify and describe the two major budget reforms attempted in the 1960s and 1970s.

8. Discuss the various attempts at reforming the budget process since the 1980s.