Congress. Congress' Budget Process Is Broken. Here's One Idea for Fixing It. Lawmakers should be freed from "the dead hand of some guy from 1974," says former Congressional Budget Office director.

However, former Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who chaired the House Budget Committee between 2017 and 2023, questioned whether the process laid out by the Congressional Budget Act still makes sense.

President Joe Biden’s long-delayed budget has finally kicked off the congressional budget and appropriations process. Unfortunately, that process is broken. The House has already abandoned ...

This is nothing new: Congress hasn’t completed work on all of its spending bills by the Oct. 1 deadline since 1996, and in some years hasn’t even bothered to adopt a budget blueprint.

Some years, Congress does not even bother to adopt a budget. Legislators regularly appropriate money whether the money has previously been authorized by law, as the budget process requires — or not.

The 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act put in place a process where each year Congress must appropriate discretionary spending—a category that includes education, defense, and ...

Ponder our current situation. The 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act put in place a process where each year Congress must appropriate discretionary spending — a category that ...