The US treasury dept...........a key as its symbol......Alex Hamilton.........a grad of King's college, NYC, now Columbia U.........on 15th st........nw............just East of the White House......

The first fiscal year for the U.S. Government started Jan. 1, 1789. Congress changed the beginning of the fiscal year from Jan. 1 to Jul. 1 in 1842, and finally from Jul. 1 to Oct. 1 in 1977 where it remains today. (src:http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm)

The Federal fiscal year gives elected Congressmen, who begin office in January, time to participate in the budget process for the next fiscal year. In other words, if the fiscal year was the calendar year, the country would run for an entire year on a budget voted on by PREVIOUS Congress - which is precisely what we are edging towards anyway given the 1976 2 month shift and your note about budget "tardiness" of late.