Omnibus, Minibus, and Cromnibus Appropriations Bills

Since the 1920s and until the mid-1980s, the regular order in Congress for enactment of discretionary appropriations was consideration of 12 or 13 regular annual appropriation bills, enacted as standalone laws.[1]

However, since the mid-1980s, while the Appropriations subcommittees and full committees of the House and Senate typically begin the appropriations process with drafting individual appropriations bills and reports, following committee action, the congressional leadership has often opted to combine some, or all, of the appropriation bills into an “omnibus,” or “consolidated” measure.[2]

Typically, the leadership of the two chambers, together with the chairs and ranking members of the two appropriations committees, package together bills in a manner that is strategically likely to expedite passage or lead to a resolution of outstanding differences through comprehensive negotiations.

When a combined bill includes all 12 regular appropriations bills, it is typically called an “omnibus” or “consolidated” appropriations act. A bill that includes fewer than 12 regular appropriations bills is colloquially called a “minibus.”[3] A variation of this is known as a “cromnibus” when it combines several of the regular bills, together with a continuing resolution (“CR”) for the remaining departments and agencies.[4]

[1] See Cong. Rsch. Serv., RL31572, Appropriations Subcommittee Structure: History of Changes from 1920 to 2021 (Feb. 8, 2021), https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL31572; and Cong. Rsch. Serv., RL32473, Omnibus Appropriations Acts: Overview of Recent Practices, Table 3 (Jan. 14, 2016), https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL32473/32.

[2] See, for e.g., the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Pub. L. No. 117-___, § 1001, __ Stat. __, ___ (2022), https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-117hr2617eas2.pdf.

[3] House Appropriations Committee website, “House Passes Six-Bill Appropriations Minibus,” accessed Nov 10, 2020, https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-passes-six-bill-appropriations-minibus.

[4] See, e.g., Nolan McCarty, “Grading the Cromnibus,” Dec. 12, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/12/12/grading-the-cromnibus/.

History of Combining the Regular Appropriations Bills: