What's in the Budgeting for a Better America Act?

Representatives Steve Womack (R-AR), Ed Case (D-HI), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), and Scott Peters (D-CA) – members of the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum (BFF) – recently introduced the Budgeting for a Better America Act. The proposal builds on bipartisan recommendations developed by the 2018 Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform and ideas that leaders of BFF have championed, such as improving fiscal transparency, requiring an annual hearing on the nation’s fiscal outlook, and establishing a commission to recommend policies to improve the nation’s fiscal outlook, including achieving a 3% deficit-to-GDP ratio within ten years.

Improving the Budget Process

The bill would move Congress to a biennial process for the budget resolution while maintaining annual appropriations and reconciliation. Congress is supposed to adopt a budget resolution every year but rarely does so on time and sometimes skips it altogether. Completing a budget – including setting topline appropriations spending levels – every other year would give Congress and federal agencies greater certainty, provide more time for oversight, and potentially reduce budget fights that result in government shutdowns and stopgap funding.

The bill would require the President to submit administrative data to Congress by December 1, enabling Congress to begin its appropriations work earlier. Under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the President must submit a budget to Congress by the first Monday in February. However, that deadline is often missed, there are no consequences for missing the deadline, and the budget process is often delayed as a result.

Further, the package would expand the House Budget Committee to include the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Appropriations Committees. The Budget Committee is tasked with assembling the fiscal blueprint for the federal government but lacks the jurisdiction to control spending and tax policies. Including committee leaders with spending and tax authority on the Budget Committee bridges the gap between the committee that drafts the fiscal blueprint and the committees charged with actually crafting policies that adhere to it.

A Bipartisan Fiscal Commission

The Budgeting for a Better America Act would establish an 18-member bipartisan fiscal commission with the goal of achieving a 3% deficit-to-GDP target in 10 years as well as addressing the growth of entitlement spending and the widening gap between federal spending and revenues. As we have written before, a 3% deficit goal has support from across the political spectrum and would be sufficient to stabilize the debt.

The commission would include six presidential appointees (equally divided between the two parties) and three from each party in the House and Senate. The commission would have one year to submit policy recommendations to Congress, which must be approved by 12 of the 18 members, including at least four Democrats and four Republicans.

If approved, the recommendations would be fast-tracked in Congress. Even if the recommendations are not approved, commissions have been successful in developing “off-the-shelf” policy solutions that can be used in the future.

The legislation incorporates the Sustainable Budget Act as a framework for the commission structure, with some minor changes from the original proposal. The Sustainable Budget Act is similar to the Fiscal Commission Act, which has attracted significant bipartisan support.

Greater Transparency

The proposal would also make several transparency and good governance improvements. For example, the proposal would establish an annual Fiscal State of the Nation address, which is an idea that has received widespread, bipartisan support in the past. The idea of a Fiscal State of the Nation has been introduced over the years, with some variations: the Fiscal State of the Nation Act and the Fiscal State of the Nation Resolution.

Under the Budgeting for a Better America Act, the Chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees would be required to conduct a joint hearing to receive a presentation from the Comptroller General regarding the Government Accountability Office's audit of the financial statement of the executive branch and the financial position and condition of the federal government. This hearing would be open to all legislators and the public.

The proposal would require the President’s budget to include a 25-, 50-, and 75-year analysis of unfunded obligations for entitlement programs along with the laws enacted by Congress that have undermined their long-term solvency. Additionally, the bill would require projections of debt-to-GDP and deficit-to-GDP to be included in budget resolutions and require a report on revenue and outlay losses from tax expenditures and the net tax gap. And to make sure every lawmaker starts with a common baseline, the bill directs the Congressional Budget Office to provide an introductory debt and deficit briefing to all new members of Congress.

A Serious, Bipartisan Proposal

Many of the ideas in this package have demonstrated bipartisan support and build on the bipartisan, bicameral work of the 2018 Joint Select Committee. Process reform alone cannot put the budget on a more responsible path, and tough decisions would still need to be made. However, at a time of near-record debt and rising interest costs, providing lawmakers with key fiscal metrics, a more orderly budget process, and a structured venue for bipartisan negotiations would be a step in the right direction.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, praised the bill’s introduction this Congress (full statement here):

Representatives Womack (R-AR), Case (D-HI), Huizenga (R-MI), and Peters (D-CA), along with other supporters, deserve real credit for putting forward a serious bipartisan bill to help Congress budget more responsibly. It is especially encouraging to see leaders in the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum continue advancing constructive, bipartisan ideas to improve the budget process and confront our fiscal challenges.

Getting back to a responsible budget will not be easy, and tough choices still lie ahead, but improving the budget process and creating a credible commission are important steps in the right direction.