Reading Room Document

Attorney General's Authority to Reprogram Funds for the United States Marshals Service to Avoid Deficiencies

The Attorney General has authority to reallocate funds among programs of the United States Marshals Service and to make available to the Service funds presently allocated to other programs and activities funded through the same lump sum appropriation. An agency head's discretion to reprogram appropriated funds within a lump sum appropriation account in an antideficiency situation would be limited only if a specific statutory directive required the expenditure or distribution of funds in a particular manner. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/24546/download.

June 20, 1980