So, if you read any of today’s national headlines, you’ll have noticed that both the Senate and the House have adjourned for a season, and headed home to campaign for re-election. One article I read noted that: “For the first time since the budgeting process was overhauled in 1974, neither chamber has voted on a budget resolution."
Now, for the sake of background (and stop me if you already know this), Budget Resolutions are the skeleton of federal spending, and the Appropriations bills (12 of them) are the meat on the bones. At the beginning of the year (usually around the State of the Union speech), the President will present his proposed budget to Congress so that Congress can then laugh at and ignore it. “The President’s Budget”, as we often hear the term, is a glorified wish list that holds no legal authority.
Article I, section VII grants the authority of budget writing to Congress. Traditionally (and, I would say “legally”, except there has been a long standing dispute between the House and Senate on this), spending (a.k.a. budgeting) bills originate in the House of Representatives. As a matter of practice, both houses of Congress have committees who get cracking on the budget bills concurrently, so as to save time later on in the process.
So, two things take place concurrently: The Budget Committees of both the House and Senate start working on the general guidelines and road map for the federal budget. The Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate pay close attention to what the Budget Committees are doing; but, ultimately, start writing some of the basics of their Approps bills down on napkins. Usually what they do is look at last year’s bill and start plagiarizing some of that boilerplate language (why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to?).
This is a somewhat symbiotic relationship, the Budget Committee gives the Approps committee borders and caps within which to operate, and the Approps Committee fulfills Congress’s Constitutional responsibility to pass a federal budget.
Once in a while, the Budget Committees fails to get their bills passed out of the House, the Senate, or both. That usually has to do with a obstinate voting block of Members who don’t like what’s in the budget, and somehow garner enough votes (usually in the Senate) to block passage. But all is not lost. The Appropriations Committees can still write their bills (there’s just less formal guidance for them to follow) and fulfill their Constitutional responsibilities. This happened 3 or 4 years ago. A vote took place, but it failed to pass. The Approps Committees continued their work moved their 12 bills to the floors of the House and Senate, and the House and Senate passed their bills.
So, that’s the process. Then there’s the timing. The federal government operates on a fiscal year that begins on October 1, and ends on September 30. So, ideally, Congress should pass their appropriations bills by September 30, and, if all goes well, the Budget Committee passes their budget bills sometime in the Spring prior to September 30, allowing the Appropriations Committees plenty of time to sort out the details with the helpful guidance.
I once called the Library of Congress (who tracks all sorts of inane trivia related to Congress) and asked when was the last time Congress passed all of their appropriations bills on time: 1995. That year, as you recall, was the first year of the Republican Contract with America. However, since then, neither R’s nor D’s have managed to do their job on time.
So, what happens when the approps bills don’t pass on time? The Congress passes something called a “Continuing Resolution” (CR). A CR essentially says, “pretend the budget this year is exactly the same as last year until we actually get around to passing one for this year. Oh, and don’t start any new efforts. Just keep the lights on.” Federal agencies usually have to keep the lights on for 3 or 4 months until they get a real budget to work with. Unfortunately, stopping everything for 3 months and idling is a bit like the USS Dallas having to go to a dead stop when the Red October does a Crazy Ivan. To paraphrase Seaman Jones: “The catch is, an Agency this big doesn’t exactly stop on a dime... and if we’re too close, we’ll drift right into the back of him.” It makes it a nightmare for agencies who are trying to deliver services to tax payers and citizens.
Sadly, CRs are very common, happening every year since 1995,and probably the majority of the years before 1995 (although, I’ve not checked on that). In Fiscal Year 2007 (which I affectionately called “fiasco year ’07) the newly minted D majority CR’d the whole year, not even trying to get it done. Granted, the outgoing R’s left them a stink bomb load of unfinished budget business on their desks for the incoming D’s, but CR the whole year?!?.
Anyhoo...
So, this year, let’s take a look at the tally card: Not only did neither houses of Congress pass a budget, they didn’t even vote on a budget. Leaving it difficult, but not impossible, for the Appropriations Committees to do their work, the Approps Committee in the House has passed two committee reports onto the House for a vote, then over to the Senate for a concurrence vote. Those two bills funded military, veterans, transportation, and HUD. All of the other agencies have their cheese hanging out in the wind (to quote Ed Rooney) with no budgets.
Yesterday, rather than rolling up their sleeves and pounding out the last 10 appropriations bills yet to be passed, they called it good enough, passed a CR, and went home to campaign. Granted, it would take several weeks to finish their work, but weeks late is better than months late.
I wonder if this dismal record will come back to haunt them as they go home to glad hand supporters and plead for votes?
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