The Shutdown Shows the Twisted Rules of a Broken Congress
- 6 years ago
The Shutdown Shows the Twisted Rules of a Broken Congress
In other years, the budget process has become bogged down, and Congress has kept the government funded through temporary extensions known as continuing resolutions (C. R.s)
that fund government operations based on current levels, or rolled everything into an omnibus — or in some cases, a “CRomnibus,” combining a budget omnibus bill and a continuing resolution.
That Congress can fail to pass a budget with so little consequence — if anything, it boosted Republicans, by giving
them two opportunities to try major partisan legislation — shows what a cynical charade the process has become.
But it is also a systemic failure, in which an outdated budget process — the complex set of procedures
that keeps the government open — has become an empty ritual, twisted in the service of narrow partisan gain.
The Republican resolution a year ago was what’s known as a “shell budget” — essentially just a set of instructions
that would have allowed the health care bill to be passed with a simple majority vote.
But in 2016 there was no budget resolution at all, which led us to the unusual situation we saw last year, where there were two budget resolutions, one to set up the failed Republican health care bill
and another, later in the year, to set up tax reform.
That law was passed as a result of a perception within Congress — which under the Constitution holds the power of the purse —
that the White House had too much influence over the budget.
The law overhauled congressional budget development procedures in a manner intended to shift the balance of power in federal budgeting away from the executive
and toward the legislature — and created the modern budget process.
In other years, the budget process has become bogged down, and Congress has kept the government funded through temporary extensions known as continuing resolutions (C. R.s)
that fund government operations based on current levels, or rolled everything into an omnibus — or in some cases, a “CRomnibus,” combining a budget omnibus bill and a continuing resolution.
That Congress can fail to pass a budget with so little consequence — if anything, it boosted Republicans, by giving
them two opportunities to try major partisan legislation — shows what a cynical charade the process has become.
But it is also a systemic failure, in which an outdated budget process — the complex set of procedures
that keeps the government open — has become an empty ritual, twisted in the service of narrow partisan gain.
The Republican resolution a year ago was what’s known as a “shell budget” — essentially just a set of instructions
that would have allowed the health care bill to be passed with a simple majority vote.
But in 2016 there was no budget resolution at all, which led us to the unusual situation we saw last year, where there were two budget resolutions, one to set up the failed Republican health care bill
and another, later in the year, to set up tax reform.
That law was passed as a result of a perception within Congress — which under the Constitution holds the power of the purse —
that the White House had too much influence over the budget.
The law overhauled congressional budget development procedures in a manner intended to shift the balance of power in federal budgeting away from the executive
and toward the legislature — and created the modern budget process.