One of the key elements of the Congressional Budget Control and Impoundment Act of 1974 (Budget Act) was the provision to adopt a budget resolution, which sets out Congressional priorities on the budget and provides a framework for legislation affecting spending and revenues. The budget resolution is a concurrent resolution, which means it is adopted by the House and Senate but not signed by the President. It establishes internal rules and procedures for legislation that impacts spending and revenues. But currently, the budget resolution mechanism has not been an effective tool in providing a framework for legislative action or imposing fiscal discipline. Congress has repeatedly failed to pass budget resolutions in recent years, and when it does adopt a budget resolution it fails to follow through and enforce the budget.
As part of our Better Budget Process Initiative, we have identified several potential changes to the budget resolution mechanism to make it a more meaningful and effective tool. Our proposed options include:
Change the process for adopting a budget resolution
- Make the Budget Committee a leadership committee
- Change to a joint budget resolution signed by the President
- Divide the budget resolution into two parts: fiscal goals and an enforceable legislative framework
- Implement a biennial budget with off-year amendments
- Provide for more informed consideration of amendments to the budget resolution
Strengthen enforcement of the budget resolution
- Enforce deficit reduction assumptions in the budget resolution through reconciliation
- Make it harder to consider legislation violating spending or revenue levels in the budget resolution
Modify the contents of the budget resolution
- Include enforcement provisions in the text of the budget resolution
- Reinforce pay-as-you-go rules
- Link the debt limit to the budget resolution
- Include Social Security in the budget resolution
- Provide for long-term savings targets
- Limit the use of reserve funds
- Show all budgetary resources in budget functions and committee allocations
In this paper, we put forward fourteen options that could improve the current budget resolution mechanism. Among them include options to change the process for adopting a budget resolution, strengthen enforcement of the budget resolution, and modify the contents of the budget resolution. Many of them could be enacted together, though they could also be enacted separately. Most of these proposals envision amendment to the Budget Act, though some could be achieved through changes in House and Senate rules as well. While we do not endorse any of these options as the right choice, we believe they should all be on the table for consideration.
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