---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 2204"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "2204"
heading: "Obligation of appropriations"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/2204"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part IV — Service, Supply, and Property"
  - "Chapter 131 — Planning and Coordination"
---

# §2204. Obligation of appropriations


To prevent overdrafts and deficiencies in the fiscal year for which appropriations are made, appropriations made to the [Department](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-6) of Defense or to a [military](/usc/10/801.md?p=8) [department](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-6), and reimbursements thereto, are available for obligation and expenditure only under scheduled [rates](/usc/10/101.md?p=b-9) of obligation, or changes thereto, that have been approved by the [Secretary](/usc/10/4951.md?p=3) of Defense. This section does not prohibit the [Department](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-6) of Defense from incurring a deficiency that it has been authorized by law to incur.


## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 87–651, title II, § 207(a), Sept. 7, 1962, 76 Stat. 520.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 2204 | 5:172c. | July 26, 1947, ch. 343, § 404; added Aug. 10, 1949, ch. 412, § 11 (7th par.), 63 Stat. 587. |

The words “on and after the beginning of the next fiscal year following August 10, 1949,” are omitted as executed. The last sentence is substituted for the proviso in 5 U.S.C. 172c.