Sec. 802. Policy statement on budget process and baseline reform
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/bill/114/hconres/27/eh/section-802·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
In 1974, after more than 50 years of executive dominance over fiscal policy, Congress acted to reassert its power of the purse , and passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act. The measure explicitly sought to establish congressional control over the budget process, to provide for annual congressional determination of the appropriate level of taxes and spending, to set important national budget priorities, and to find ways in which Members of Congress could have access to the most accurate, objective, and highest quality information to assist them in discharging their duties.
Far from achieving its intended purpose, however, the process has instituted a bias toward higher spending and larger government. The behemoth of the Federal Government has largely been financed through either borrowing or taking ever greater amounts of the national income through high taxation. The process does not treat programs and policies consistently and shows a bias toward higher spending and higher taxes. It assumes extension of spending programs (of more than $50 million per year) scheduled to expire.
Yet it does not assume the extension of tax policies in the same way. consequently, extending existing tax policies that may be scheduled to expire is characterized as a new tax reduction, requiring offsets to pay for merely keeping tax policy the same even though estimating conventions would not require similar treatment of spending programs. The original goals set for the congressional process are admirable in their intent, but because the essential mechanisms of the process have remained the same, and reforms enacted over the past 40 years have largely taken the form of layering greater levels of legal complexity without reforming or reassessing the very fundamental nature of the process.
It is the policy of this concurrent resolution on the budget that as the primary branch of Government, Congress must: Restructure the fundamental procedures of budget decision making. Reassert Congress’s power of the purse , and reinforce the balance of powers between Congress and the President, as the 1974 Act intended. Create greater incentives for lawmakers to do budgeting as intended by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, especially adopting a budget resolution every year.
Encourage more effective control over spending, especially currently uncontrolled direct spending. Consider innovative fiscal tools such as: zero based budgeting, which would require a department or agency to justify its budget as if it were a new expenditure; and direct spending caps to enhance oversight of automatic pilot spending that increases each year without congressional approval. Promote efficient and timely budget actions, so that lawmakers complete their budget actions by the time the new fiscal year begins.
Provide access to the best analysis of economic conditions available and increase awareness of how fiscal policy directly impacts overall economic growth and job creation. Remove layers of complexity that have complicated the procedures designed in 1974, and made budgeting more arcane and opaque. Remove existing biases that favor higher spending. Include procedures by which current tax laws may be extended and treated on a basis that is not different from the extension of entitlement programs.
Comprehensive budget process reform should also remove the bias in the baseline against the extension of current tax laws in the following ways: Permanent extension of tax laws should not be used as a means to increase taxes on other taxpayers. For those expiring tax provisions that are proposed to be permanently extended, Congress should use a more realistic baseline that does not require them to be offset. Tax-reform legislation should not include tax increases just to offset the extension of current tax laws.
The Committee on the Budget intends to draft legislation during the 114th Congress that will rewrite the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to fulfill the goals of making the congressional budget process more effective in ensuring taxpayers’ dollars are spent wisely and efficiently.