Budget Act dead at 50 — or is it incognito?

It is fitting on this 50th anniversary of The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that we take a full measure of its successes, failures and pulse (if any). Judging from the historical data, it has not been a stunning, fiscal-cardio-health success.  

In the 1960s Congress was not happy that its powers of the purse were increasingly being eclipsed by the president and executive branch. Between inter-branch clashes over Vietnam and the budget, Congress’s constitutional prerogatives were steadily eroding.   

Based on the findings a House-Senate Joint Study Committee on Budget Control in 1973, Congress voted to enact the Congressional Budget Act creating House and Senate Budget committees to produce an annual budget plan in a concurrent resolution, not subject to presidential signature or veto. It also established a neutral Congressional Budget Office of experts to counter the president’s Office of Management and Budget by providing regular, nonpartisan information to help Congress make effective budget and economic policy.   

The two most important dates to keep in mind are April 15 (originally May 15), the deadline by which Congress must come to agreement on a concurrent resolution on the budget proposing spending, revenue and debt limit targets for the upcoming fiscal year; and Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year by which time Congress was to complete work on all 12 annual appropriations bills and any revenue changes. The bottom line of that well-intentioned plan is that Congress has never met a deadline it couldn’t break.  

To the surprise of many, President Richard M. Nixon, who was threatening impoundments to reduce spending, signed the bill (H.R. 7130) into law on July 12, 1974. He did so just 19 days before resigning from the presidency over the Watergate scandal and likelihood he was about to be impeached and convicted. In his signing statement, Nixon commended Congress “for this landmark legislation” and pledged the “full support of the executive branch in helping fulfill the great promise of this bill.” But he added a warning to Congress not to overly constrain the president’s ability to withhold funds if circumstances warrant it.   

In 30 of the last 49 years, Congress has not met the April 15 deadline for approving a budget resolution. The last time Congress completed action on all 12 appropriations by Oct. 1 was 1996. It has passed all 12 of the money bills only four times: in 1977, 1989, 1995 and 1997. In the last 11 of 13 years it has not enacted even one of the 12 money bills by Oct. 1.

Consequently, it has had to rely on stop-gap continuing appropriations resolutions (CRs) 131 times since 1995, averaging 4.2 times a year. The alternative to CRs are government shutdowns, which have occurred on five occasions since 1995, the longest lasting 35 days (Dec. 22, 2018 – Jan. 25, 2019). Meanwhile, Congress has piled-up increasing deficits and debt and has been forced 63 times since 1995 to rely on emergency supplemental appropriations bills.

Over the long term, the congressional budget process has not been a pretty picture — more like a kindergarten class finger-painting mural than an impressionist’s landscape. 

One handy device Congress has adopted to circumvent its failure to adopt a budget resolution that allows it to process spending bills has been the so-called “deeming resolution.” The House and Senate insert language containing all the requisite language of a budget resolution into a must-pass measure and deems it to be adopted with passage of the host measure.

While the two chambers have differing budget levels, that still frees-up the pending appropriations bills to move forward to the next house.

According to Congressional Research Service budget expert Megan S. Lynch, the “deeming” solution has been utilized in nine of the 13 fiscal years from 1999 to 2013 when Congress has not mutually agreed on a final budget resolution. I suspect that solution has been used ever since. 

The current fiscal year 2024 budget process has been one of the most conflicted and prolonged given split party control within Congress and between the House and White House. It did not wrap-up until early spring — more than five months late. 

It was a two-step process, enacted on March 8 and March 22, 2024, with each mini-bus bill covering six of the 12 regular appropriations bills. Any sightings of language resembling a stand-alone budget resolution would be a sure tipoff.

Those budget resolution details are flying incognito, by stealth and under the radar, likely embedded inside two of the earlier continuing appropriations bills. The budget process may not be dead, but it has transformed itself considerably since 1974 just to stay alive.  

Don Wolfensberger is a 28-year congressional staff veteran culminating as chief of staff of the House Rules Committee in the 104th Congress.  He is author of “Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial” (2000), and “Changing Cultures in Congress: From Fair Play to Power Plays” (2018).  The views expressed are solely his own.