McConnell, Schumer tap colleagues to explore budget reform

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday named four colleagues, including a member of his leadership team, to serve on a new select committee devoted to budget reform.

McConnell tapped Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, and Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) to the new special panel.

Congress agreed to create a joint select committee on budget and appropriations process reform earlier this month as part of a deal to raise defense and nondefense spending caps for 2018 and 2019.

Perdue has been an especially vocal advocate for reforming the budget and appropriations process.

He declared it was in a “crisis phase” during a recent appearance at the Better Budget Process Summit hosted by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. {mosads}

Perdue frequently notes that Congress has on average passed only two and a half of the 12 required annual appropriations bills per year over the past 44 years.

Blunt will offer procedural expertise to the select committee as a senior member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. 

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) announced his four appointments to the budget and spending process reform panel on Monday.

They are Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii). 

They will join eight members appointed by House leaders.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has selected House Budget Committee Chairman Steve Womack (R-Ark.), House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas), and Reps. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) and Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has picked Rep. Nita Lowey (N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. John Yarmuth (Ky.), the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, and Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.).