Congress was given 18 powers in Article I of the Constitution. Chief among
those is the power to raise and spend money, typically referred to as the power
of the purse. Each year, the Department of the Treasury takes in tax money
from corporations and individuals alike. Its the job of Congress to budget
that money and dole it out to various agencies and programs that provide for
our common defense, pave new highways, provide healthcare for our veterans,
educate our children and secure the homeland. But, what happens when Congress
does not complete its work by the start of the new fiscal year?
This is not an unheard-of scenario: In recent memory, only in 1977, 1989 and
1997 was their work wrapped up when the fiscal year began on Oct. 1. And since
1980, there have been seven years when Congress did not complete a single spending
bill by the start of the fiscal year. Lawmakers have passed more than 100 stop-gap
spending measures, called continuing resolutions, to keep the government running
until their work is completed. In fact, continuing resolutions have been used
almost since the birth of the republic to give Congress and the president more
time to iron out disagreements and make the deals needed to get spending bills
signed into law.
James A. Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential
Studies at American University, told the Washington Post on Oct. 7, 2002: When
we dont have a consensus in society about what we want our money to be
spent on, that manifests itself in deadlock on the Hill.
The budget debate in recent years has taken on a particularly bitter tone as
the deficit has risen in the wake of September 11 and wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq. High deficits mean little wiggle room for domestic discretionary spending
and pit programs against each other. One of the toughest bills to pass through
both houses of Congress is the Veterans Administration/Housing and Urban Development
and Independent Agencies appropriations bill. This piece of legislation is difficult
because it contains funding for the National Science Foundation, Environmental
Protection Agency and NASA along with a number of other independent agencies,
such as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It is a delicate
balancing act to provide ample and adequate healthcare for veterans while also
funding the nations groundbreaking scientific research, protecting the
environment and exploring the new frontier in space. While these funding decisions
are being hashed out at the eleventh hour (and often far, far beyond), agencies,
programs and their federal workers are left teetering on the edge. Agency heads
and program managers do not like continuing resolutions because they force agencies
to pursue this years priorities under last years funding levels.
That can be especially troublesome if the agency has taken on new missions or
programs. The delay can also interfere with hiring and budget planning and can
make employees nervous about the fate of their annual pay increase.
For example, during the 1995 government shutdown, Government Computer News
reported that NASAs chief concern was keeping all of their assets in low-Earth
orbit, high-Earth orbit and deep space staying up. The Space Shuttle
Atlantis was scheduled to dock with the Russian Mir space station the
day after furloughs began. About 2,000 employees were necessary to provide for
the safety and security of Atlantis and NASAs other assets and
to perform the daily work required to keep future shuttle launches on schedule.
The other 19,000 employees were sent home.
In 2002 on the Senate floor, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) called budgeting
by continuing resolution the worst possible way to govern because
it allows for obfuscation and abuse while ignor[ing] critical
needs.
So, whats the answer? After drawn-out battles over spending on guns
versus butter in the Vietnam era, Congress in 1974 passed landmark budget
legislation that was supposed to create a more orderly system. It required Congress
to pass an annual budget that the Appropriations Committee had to live with.
But the system continues to be a train wreck waiting to happen every year.
This year, the House and Senate each passed a budget, but failed to reach a
compromise for one roadmap for appropriations. As such, the two houses are operating
with two different sets of numbers dictating the caps on spending for each appropriations
bill. In short, negotiations over individual spending bills between the House
and Senate this fall will be particularly difficult because each will think
they have the magic number.
Instead of resorting to the cheap fix of governing by continuing resolution
until a budget is passed two or more months behind schedule, with across-the-board
cuts on all programs, some people believe it is time for Congress to reassess
how and when they budget. Several years ago, for example, a movement was afoot
to have the federal budget operate on a two-year budget cycle. That would let
lawmakers perform proper oversight and management of the agencies and programs
within their purview on the off-year and then get down to the nitty-gritty of
passing such behemoth legislation during the on-year. However, sensing this
would take some of the power and cachet out of being in charge of the only 13
bills that must pass each year, appropriators outright opposed the idea, and
it has languished.
And so we have an eternally compressed calendar wherein the congressional members
spend nearly as much time in their districts as they do in Washington, D.C.
When they are in the Capitol, the atmosphere is so partisan and bitter that
the vast majority of the bills the policy-makers can agree on and pass are Post
Office designations. If the average American were aware enough of the budget
process to be outraged by this governance via procrastination, perhaps the Congress
would get the message and perform one of their central duties in an efficient
and timely manner.
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