With talk of a partial government shutdown again emanating from Washington, D.C., the American public likely has a few questions:
Didn’t they just settle this a couple months ago?
Must this happen so frequently?
And isn’t there a better way?
In simplistic terms, the answers are “kind of,” “no” and “absolutely yes.” And while a solution will not arrive in time to impact a potential shutdown beginning Friday, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is working to find a better way for members of Congress to devise, debate and pass the federal budget.
Perez, D-Skamania, has joined with Republican Rep. Blake Moore of Utah to introduce the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2024. The gist, as explained in a press release: “Reform the current federal budgeting process and establish a more inclusive, comprehensive, and efficient process to make a federal budget that works better for the American people.”
To be clear, it is Pollyannaish to think that a first-term Democrat and a second-term Republican can lead the charge to reconfigure a budgeting process that doles out more than $6 trillion a year. But it does provide an opportunity to excoriate those who have spent decades destroying how the federal government spends the money it collects from taxpayers.
Congress has not approved a budget since 1997. In the 47 years since a new budgeting system was adopted, lawmakers have approved a comprehensive spending plan four times — for fiscal 1977, 1989, 1995 and 1997.
Instead, Congress relies on a series of continuing resolutions that adjust and extend spending for varying lengths of time. The result is perpetual governance by crisis and chaos, and members of both parties have used the threat (or the actuality) of a government shutdown to push agenda items that might or might not be related to the budget.
This is no way to run a government. It is no way to handle the finances of a company or a household, either, but congressional members — most recently far-right Republicans — mistakenly believe it is a fine way to conduct the business of the people. The process has contributed mightily to a national debt of $34 trillion.
Among other things, the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act would require the House Appropriations Committee to compile its 12 appropriations bills, which currently are considered separately, and send a complete budget to the House.
As Perez said in a statement: “Our national debt is a real, growing problem, affects our economy, and has been overlooked by Congress for too long. It’s beyond time to act — which is why we’re introducing bipartisan legislation to revamp the annual budget process so Congress can have more productive conversations about our spending and revenue. Southwest Washington taxpayers will be better off for it.”
Instead, the nation is in a situation where portions of the federal government could shut down Friday and the remainder could close Feb. 2.
While Republican members of the House have spent much of the past year wrangling over the debt ceiling, firing the speaker and debating shutdowns, it should be noted that the Senate passed all 12 spending bills in a timely fashion. Much of the credit for that goes to Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The hope is that the House will follow suit and do its part to keep government functioning. And once the dust settles, they should find a better way.
