Repeal the 1974 Act

[Jolly]

In 1974 lawmakers passed the Congressional Budget Control and Impoundment Act to bring order to the annual appropriations process. As we approach its 50th anniversary, it’s clear that the law has failed to bring order. It’s time to repeal and replace it rather than continuing this destructive cycle.

Some members of Congress and two joint select committees, in 1993 and 2018, have proposed different ideas for how to replace the act. Some ideas enjoy bipartisan support; others face resistance. The first idea is to end the annual ritual of threatened government shutdowns. In Wisconsin, if legislative dysfunction precludes the funding of state government or agencies, we don’t shut them down; we keep operating them at last year’s spending levels until appropriations are passed. What could be more common-sense? Members of Congress have introduced proposals to end federal government shutdowns forever. It’s past time to pass one of those bills.

A second idea is to move to biennial budgeting. We often hear the excuse that there isn’t enough time to pass all 12 annual appropriations bills one at a time. But many states use a two-year budget cycle. Congress each year could pass bills that provide two years of funding for six appropriations accounts while conducting oversight of the previous year’s spending on the other six accounts. This would give lawmakers time to pass bills individually and allow greater scrutiny of each account. By aligning the federal government’s fiscal year to the calendar year—it currently starts Oct. 1—Congress would have three more months to pass the appropriations bills.

The third idea is to consolidate committee jurisdiction. When several committees claim jurisdiction over the same federal departments, agencies and legislation, it creates overlap and congressional dysfunction. This would be challenging to fix because entrenched committee chairmen would likely oppose anything that reduced their power. But aligning the full standing committees to functions and departments within the executive branch would be a major improvement over the status quo. We should also consider dissolving appropriations committees and transferring their duties to subcommittees under the properly aligned authorizing committees. Each full committee should also have an adequately staffed oversight subcommittee.

For the rest of the piece:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/repeal-the-1974-budget-law-that-fuels-the-gov-shutdown-cycle-7e90ef4a