EPA Budget: “For each fiscal year (which runs from October through September), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) develops a proposed budget. The budget defines the goals and objectives towards which the Agency intends to work within the fiscal year and the funding the Agency believes is necessary to accomplish these goals and objectives. This budget is combined with the budgets of the rest of the Executive Branch and is then sent by the President to the Congress (this occurs in the first quarter of the calendar year). The Congress then acts on the various budgets by developing, amending, and, ultimately, passing bills which enact the budgets into law (normally prior to the start of the fiscal year covered by the budget). At this point the enacted budget becomes the blueprint for the Agency’s activities during the next fiscal year.”