Federal Budget

Federal Budget

Why is it that US citizens must every year be concerned about a Federal Government shutdown? Because our congress cannot follow the rules and file a US Federal Government budget by the deadline of October the 1st.
In a Federal government shut down, some US citizens must worry if they will receive their Social Security checks, others if they will receive their government pay checks, others if they will receive their military paychecks, etc. etc. etc.

Below, the process to the final budget bill is wrought with obvious causes for failure by our lawmakers
The President sends his budget to Congress in early February, and congressional lawmakers can ignore the President’s budget – and they do. As Congress must pass a budget of its own by mid-April, the House and Senate could have a jump start by utilizing a common work product, i.e.: the President’s budget. House and Senate could more quickly pass separate resolutions, establish separate conference committees, and then merge the two resolutions together. A final version could then be passed much faster. The first cause for failure then is ignoring the President’s budget as a starting point.

The following 12 bills make up the final version, and the appropriations committees must determine the amounts necessary for these bills, a very long and difficult job that congress cannot seem to finish by October 1 each year.

• Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies;
• Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies;
• Defense;
• Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies;
• Financial Services and General Government;
• Homeland Security;
• Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies;
• Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies;
• Legislative Branch;
• Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies;
• State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; and
• Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.

Each committee is responsible for its own bill and each bill must conform to the overall spending framework already set in the budget resolution before it comes to a full vote on the floor. The House begins and sends their final action to the Senate, where Senators make changes, and this process continues sometimes 12 times requiring hundreds of votes in committees and in the full houses of congress. And, does it actually happen in a timely fashion? No. The process breaks down for several historical reasons:

Congress cannot agree on a budget resolution, and therefore they go their own separate ways in appropriating funds. Sometimes critical steps in the process don’t happen and appropriation bills from the House are not voted on by the Senate. It is obvious that because of partisan and/or ideological disagreements, Congress just simply does not do its job as outlined in the process.

Then, in order to avoid a shutdown, Congress passes a short-term budget that just maintains current spending levels. These are called continuing resolution or CR bills. And they are just patch bills because lawmakers did not do their jobs. Another patch bill might come later called an omnibus bill – and this is an overall appropriation bill covering all 12 of the areas. These patch bills are necessary when our legislators have not done their jobs and have not been able to put in place a real US Federal Budget by October 1.

Devin Henry of The Hill states a truism: “Overall, Congress has a lot of rules guiding how it hopes to define spending and it breaks them. All the time.”

And Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, from Minnesota, having worked on an appropriations Committee, is concerned that no on has come up with any serious reforms to help speed the process along. “It’s become so routine that there’s sort of no chance that they are going to follow the schedule.”

Why is it that our government requires us to be law abiding citizens, and yet the laws of the land regarding passage of our government’s budget are being disregarded and ignored by our lawmakers, thereby shutting down the government and causing many citizens to suffer?