Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced the “Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act” to provide “a more orderly, deliberative budget process focused on long-term fiscal planning.”
Enzi and Whitehouse added in a statement announcing their proposal that they believe “it would end the brinksmanship surrounding the debt limit and encourage bipartisan collaboration in tackling our growing debt and deficits.”
Co-sponsors for the proposal include Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Angus King (I-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.).
The annual deficit figure could exceed $1 trillion as more complete expenditure figures are received by the Treasury from federal departments, agencies, and commissions.
The federal government collected $3.5 trillion in tax revenues for 2019, a 4 percent gain over 2018, but spending exceeded $4.4 trillion, an 8 percent increase.
The official forecast for fiscal year 2020 is that the government will collect $3.6 trillion in revenues and spend $4.7 trillion, creating an annual deficit in excess of $1 trillion.
“While the federal government’s revenue continues to grow, spending is growing twice as fast. It is time to change the way we do things in Washington. We simply cannot afford to continue ignoring the fiscal challenges our nation faces,” Enzi said.
The budget act created the current Senate and House budget committees, made the federal fiscal year begin on Oct. 1 instead of July 1, set up the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide independent spending data, and established deadlines for congressional committees to decide how much to appropriate to each budget line item, and for Congress to approve the overall budget for signature by the president.
The process worked well for some years, but in recent decades has increasingly failed to produce the strengthened congressional budget oversight promised by the law’s backers.
Those measures variously set spending targets, with penalties for failure to meet them, but Congress has repeatedly set aside the penalties or changed the targets, with a result that the budget process has become increasingly little more than a series of continuing resolutions, temporary government shutdowns, and partisan gridlock.
- Move the government to a two-year budget cycle while retaining the current annual appropriations.
- Require Senate spending and taxation committees to submit detailed spending and revenue plans, including actions to eliminate unauthorized expenditures (“zombie programs”), and to implement recommendations by Inspectors General and the Government Accountability Office (GA).
- Rename the Senate Budget Committee to the “Committee on Fiscal Control and the Budget,” and require it to submit an annual spending resolution with detailed deficit reduction plans.
- Create a mechanism within the budget process to link projected federal debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
- Institute an optional bipartisan budget pathway to set spending and deficit reduction levels with the votes of at least 60 senators, including at least 15 from the minority party.
- Revise Senate rules to cap the total hours allowed to debate budget resolutions, while assuring that all senators have opportunities to offer amendments.
In a Sept. 25 statement, he said, “The threat of a fiscal crisis is not something anyone should take lightly. As a father and grandfather, this is a concern that keeps me up at night.
“What kind of burden are we placing on our children and grandchildren, who could face a future of less growth and economic opportunity, as a result of our refusal to make difficult fiscal decisions? Congress should be working together with the Administration now to begin the long process of a fiscal course correction.”
