A program can exist in law and receive no money. The two-step structure that allows this is deliberate, and it explains a recurring gap between announcements and delivery.
Authorization creates and defines
An authorizing bill establishes a program, states its purpose, sets eligibility, assigns it to an agency and specifies how long the authority lasts.
It typically also states a maximum amount that may be spent, which is a ceiling rather than a transfer. Nothing in it moves money.
These bills are handled by the subject-matter committees, whose members have the relevant expertise and the relationships with the agencies that will implement the result.
Appropriation actually provides funds
A separate appropriations process decides how much is available in a given year, and it is handled by a different committee with a different set of pressures.
The amount appropriated is frequently below the authorized ceiling, because the appropriators are dividing a constrained total across every program competing for it.
An authorized program with no appropriation exists on paper, has no staff and delivers nothing, which is a common outcome for smaller initiatives.
The separation serves a purpose
Splitting the decisions means the question of whether a program is a good idea is settled separately from the question of what is affordable this year.
It also creates an annual review point, since a program funded yearly must justify itself repeatedly rather than continuing automatically once created.
Mandatory spending works differently, flowing according to eligibility rules without an annual vote, which is why that portion of a budget is harder to adjust.
Expired authorizations complicate the picture
Authorizations carry end dates, and legislatures frequently miss them. Appropriators often continue funding a lapsed program anyway, through provisions permitting it.
The result is programs operating for years on funding alone, with no recent legislative review of whether their design still fits their purpose.
Why announcements outrun delivery
A new initiative can be announced when the authorizing bill passes, which is the moment that generates coverage. Funding is decided later and attracts far less attention.
Readers wanting to know whether something will actually happen should look for the appropriation rather than the authorization, since that is where the operative decision is made.
The same distinction applies at state level under different names, and it accounts for a large share of the distance between policy as announced and policy as experienced.