It’s an unwieldy process that funds a government so large and larded with mandatory entitlements that billions are spent on “auto-pilot,” regardless of what Congress does in cutting discretionary spending—no matter who is in the White House.
With the federal government now functioning through a continuing resolution (CR) adopted late on Sept. 30 to extend previous year funding levels through to Nov. 17, it marks the 49th time since 2010 that a temporary measure was installed to keep agencies afloat after Oct.1.
This time, it was passed to prevent what would have been the 11th partial federal shutdown since 1980.
While the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY 24) budget could be in limbo until nearly Thanksgiving, the FY 25 budget process has already begun under time-tables established by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
Federal agencies and departments must get spending requests to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) this month, which then sends them to the White House in November.
The 1974 reform measure was adopted in a post-Watergate environment where Congress “reclaimed” its authority of a process over which the White House had too much control since the 1920s, members said.
President Richard Nixon had “impounded,” or refused to disburse, billions in funds Congress appropriated for domestic programs.
Under the law, all agency and department budget requests are “final” by December. The president then outlines administration priorities in the State of the Union address in late January.
Afterward, under the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, the president must submit its budget request to Congress by the first Monday in February, and the Congressional Budget Office must get analyses of the proposed spending plans to committees no later than Feb. 15.
Of course, none of this actually happens. At least, not once the administration and Congress get involved.
The Biden administration didn’t get its budget request to Congress until March and the chambers didn’t pass their budget resolutions by April 15, nor their versions of all 12 appropriations bills by June 30—the House has still only passed five—nor a FY 24 budget by Oct. 1.
There has to be a better way for Congress to adopt a budget which, technically, is its only job; a full federal budget has been in place by Oct. 1 just four times since 1956—in 1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997.
Not surprisingly, before September’s budget drama became October’s budget drama and, most likely, November’s budget drama, there were plenty of budget reform ideas being bandied about.
Not surprisingly, few, if any, will make it into the realm of actionable scrutiny because process questions routinely get lost in ... the process.
The 99 Percent Solution
Mr. Massie, who has a Master’s Degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), offered his budget solution after taking “umbrage with a slight” by a Democrat colleague who said the budget stalemate was “engineered” by House conservatives.“I would say it’s anything but ‘engineered.’ The ‘engineering’ solution would, in fact, be 12 appropriations bills. A shutdown is not something you ‘engineer,’” he said.
Mr. Massie’s plan, which he has suggested several times over the past few years, is simple.
“On Jan. 3, the first day we’re in business next year, we should say when we get to Sept. 30, if we haven’t done our homework, let’s automatically have a CR kick in,” he said. “I would do it at 99 percent” of previous-year funding levels.
This does two things, Mr. Massie said.
“There should be a little bit of a disincentive to have a CR, so that’s why I propose it at 99 percent. It shouldn’t be something we want to do,” he said.
“If we had done that in January, we'd all be calmly talking about these bills that you’re presenting, knowing that there is a parachute on the plane. So, that’s the ‘engineering’ solution.”
Mr. Massie’s plan does not address policy or politics, nor deal with what most say throws the process into a loop—frustration that more than 63 percent of federal spending is automatically spent on entitlements such as Medicaid and Social Security.
Biennium Budget Cycle
Most proposed revisions to the budget process seek to reform the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. In 2019, a bill to adopt a two-year budget cycle never got out of the Senate.The 2019 legislation was co-sponsored by then-Senate Budget Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and current Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
The Department of Veterans Affairs already has a biennial budget, the BPC notes. Its proposal would also “overhaul” and streamline the number of committees involved.
“The appropriations and authorizing committees have multiplied into hundreds of subcommittees with overlapping jurisdictions,” the BPC proposal says, noting there’s little consistency in the process because “committees have term limits and limited powers, limiting their effectiveness.”
The BPC also calls for improved tracking and accounting to lower operating costs.
The Senate Budget Committee’s chief economist from 2013-16, he also served as a Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner in the Trump administration.
Mr. Beach said the federal government has increased spending by 42 percent and its debt by 53 percent in the past 20 years without addressing revenues.
This is among the reasons cited by Fitch Ratings, which lowered U.S. creditworthiness from “AAA” to “AA” on Aug. 1.
“This two-step fiscal process would allow Congress and the White House to focus on planning without simultaneously sorting through how public funds will be spent,” Mr. Beach said.
“A biannual system also aligns with the two-year, congressional election cycle, thus more tightly connecting the electoral debates about priorities with the legislation that enacts those priorities.”
