CRFB Statement on Joint Select Committee Members

For Immediate Release

House leaders named several members Friday to the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform, a 16-member, bipartisan Congressional panel charged with proposing legislation later this year to improve the budget process.The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Our modern budget process is broken and greatly in need of a fix. Deadlines are missed, there is no accountability, gimmicks are abundant, and the terrible fiscal outcomes bode poorly for the longer-term health of the economy. Pretend budgets and government shutdowns have become the status quo.



This will not be an easy task, but it is an important one, and we hope the committee will succeed in developing a number of improvements to the system and that there will be bipartisan support to adopt those recommendations.



There are many great ideas for reform – some of which we will speak about Monday at our first annual Better Budget Process Summit. These ideas and the work of this new committee will only succeed if they are approached in a truly bipartisan way. No majority is permanent, and therefore budget reform should be bipartisan and create a process that serves all Americans.

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For more information contact Patrick Newton, press secretary, at newton@crfb.org.