Under the Appropriations Clause, an appropriation is simply a law that authorizes expenditures from a specified source of public money for designated purposes. The statute that provides the Bureau’s funding meets these requirements. We therefore conclude that the Bureau’s funding mechanism does not violate the Appropriations Clause. ...

The associations’ challenge turns solely on whether the Bureau’s funding mechanism constitutes an “Appropriatio[n] made by Law.” This question divided the courts below. The District Court concluded that a valid appropriation is nothing more than a statute that “authorizes an agency to receive funds up to a certain cap.” 558 F. Supp. 3d, at 364; see also Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Law Offices of Crystal Moroney, 63 F. 4th 174, 181 (CA2 2023). The Court of Appeals, on the other hand, suggested that appropriations must also “meet the Framers’ salutary aims of separating and checking powers and preserving accountability to the people.” 51 F. 4th, at 640. The associations defend this understanding and argue that the statute that provides the Bureau’s funding undermines these aims by allowing the agency to indefinitely choose its own level of annual funding, subject only to an illusory cap. That is, the associations contend that the Bureau’s funding mechanism is too open-ended in duration and amount to satisfy the requirement that there be an “Appropriatio[n] made by Law.”

Based on the Constitution’s text, the history against which that text was enacted, and congressional practice immediately following ratification, we conclude that appropriations need only identify a source of public funds and authorize the expenditure of those funds for designated purposes to satisfy the Appropriations Clause.