Several former leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees on Wednesday criticized the current state of Congress’ budget process after Congress repeatedly failed to simultaneously adopt budget resolutions in recent years.
“The budget process is completely broken and needs to be fixed,” said former Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who chaired the Senate Budget Committee from 2003 to 2005.
“It’s unconscionable to think that the United States government doesn’t have a budget,” he added at an event hosted by The Hill and the Bipartisan Policy Center commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Congressional Budget and Seizure Control Act.
The Congressional Budget Act, passed in 1974, requires Congress to pass a concurrent resolution each April to develop a budget blueprint before proceeding with the appropriations process.
However, since the beginning of this century, Congress has increasingly been unable to pass simultaneous budget resolutions in the face of increasing polarization.
Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who served as House Budget Committee chairman from 1989 to 1993, suggested that the current situation requires either strong leadership or a crisis.
“I think it’s very likely that ultimately a crisis will be needed,” Panetta said Wednesday. “And that crisis is approaching.”
“We have $34 trillion, $35 trillion in debt,” he continued. “Thankfully, we now pay more in interest than we do on defense. And it’s going to continue to go up. It’s going to eat into this country’s resources and ultimately weaken the economy.”
But former Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who chaired the House Budget Committee from 2017 to 2023, questions whether the process set out in the Congressional Budget Act still makes sense. It showed.
Yarmuth suggested that the top-line spending numbers may not change much whether Congress ultimately adopts a concurrent resolution or not.
“In commemoration of the 50th anniversary [of the Congressional Budget Act] That could be a real opportunity to step back and think, “What’s the best process?” “Is what the Budget Act of 1974 established the best process? And I don’t know if that’s the case,” he said.
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pennsylvania), the current ranking member of the House Budget Committee, also said Wednesday that he believes Congress should “consider reasonable bipartisan reforms” to the process.
“We’ve seen more and more in recent years where budgets can’t be passed on time and proposals can’t even be submitted by established statutory dates,” Boyle said.
“We have also seen hyperpolarization within both major political parties contributing to dysfunction in relation to the Budget Control Act and the budget process,” he added. “So I think it’s time to consider reasonable bipartisan reforms to the budget process.”
Congress passed sweeping legislation last month to fund the government, months after its original October deadline.
Passage of the FY2024 government funding bill brings to an end a painful months-long process for Congress, especially House Republicans. That’s because disagreements between the various factions in the conference over thorny policy areas like spending and abortion were in the spotlight during the summer leading up to the historic landmark bill. The expulsion of party leaders and its aftermath.
Since then, House Republicans have been hard at work injecting government funding as both chambers ramp up their annual appropriations processes for fiscal year 2025.
But negotiators have already acknowledged that some kind of funding stopgap will likely be needed in September, when Congress meets its next shutdown deadline. Even as we enter an election year, negotiators are trying to make concessions by delaying and hastening the start of fiscal 2025 funding. Politics.
Contributed by Alice Foley.
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