Easy. All revenue/spending bills start in the House.
They pass an AUTHORIZATION (permission to spend, like you give your kid permission to spend $10 this week in his allowance) bill.
The Senate then passes a similar AUTHORIZATION (permission).
Say, they authorized 50 F-22 fighters at (just guessing $1.6billion).
The USAF now has authorization to spend up to $1.6b, but STILL DOESN’T HAVE ANY MONEY.
Next the House passes an APPROPRIATIONS bill (actually providing the money). The Senate does the same. (So you actually give your kid some money, but usually not all at once).
So they appropriate half. The House & Senate get updates and reports. USAF says, “Oh, we’re having mechanical issues.” Well, then the House & Senate say “We won’t APPROPRIATE any more until you fix these.”
Like your kid was given $5 of the $10 for the movies . . . but instead bought a joint with it. You say, “I’m not giving you the rest of your allowance until I know I can trust you.”
If you look at the LINES in the Omnibus bill, they are AUTHORIZATIONS. Trump cannot just spend willy nilly or diert money from the USAF to the Wall. House won’t APPROPRIATE it, and if he did it, he’d be impeached.
This Act may be cited as the ''Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018''
SEC. 5. STATEMENT OF APPROPRIATIONS.
The following sums in this Act are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2018.
If the Red Castle / Green Castle thing is true, and the Army Corps of Engineers has the money to build it, is there anything congress and the senate can say?