For many years, Congress hasn’t been able to agree on funding for the year, and they’ve gotten into the bad habit of relying on Continuing Resolutions (CRs):
CRs have become a regular tool for Congress, which repeatedly struggles to complete the annual appropriations process on time: Congress has enacted at least one CR in all
but three of the past 47 fiscal years. From 2010 to 2022, policymakers passed 47 continuing resolutions ranging in duration from one to 176 days. From FY1998 to FY2023, an average of five CRs were enacted each fiscal year, though as many as 21 were implemented in one fiscal year (FY2001). In the 21st century, Congress has used CRs to provide funding for federal agencies for an average of five months each fiscal year, though lawmakers have also passed full-year CRs.
The biggest part of this problem is that a CR gives the legislators an excuse for not providing a budget for the government or providing guardrails for spending. Because of their inability to work together, compromise, and take responsibility for providing a budget for the government, the CR has become a poor substitute for a legitimate budget and to avoid government shutdowns. And worse yet, only the 25% of the budget that represents discretionary funding is affected by a government shutdown; creating alarm over a potential shutdown is not a reasonable reaction.
You might think that as long as funding is eventually provided, the passing of a CR is not a big deal. Congress has failed to act on all or part of the following:
The overall level of funding in the discretionary budget that Congress is required to pass annually (referred to as 302(a) allocations, named for the section of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act that governs the congressional budget process);
The subdivision of funding into the 12 appropriations bills, such as Defense, Agriculture, or Homeland Security (called 302(b) allocations); and
Policy provisions that are often included in appropriations bills and reflect non-budgetary priorities of the two parties, often referred to as policy ‘riders.’
In addition, the agencies must stay within the funding and policy levels of the previous year, which may conflict with the current needs of citizens.
For this year, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has tried to set limits to the CR:
Johnson said in a letter to lawmakers that he does not want a shutdown weeks before the election. But he also stressed that the legislation ‘will be a very narrow, bare-bones CR (continuing resolution) including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary.’
The bill will keep the government running until December 20, and provide additional funds for the Secret Service given the two recent assassination attempts on Donald Trump, but almost guarantees a showdown before Christmas regarding a new budget bill, and legislators will likely add their own favorite projects.
What is the budget process that is supposed to be followed?—
Under regular order, the president releases a budget proposal early in the year,
Congress passes a budget resolution no later than mid-April, and appropriations committees draw up spending bills for a dozen or so spending categories. Each of those is debated and voted on one at a time, with enough time to read, debate, and amend the bills. All of this is supposed to happen before October 1, the beginning of the federal government's fiscal year.
Congress has not completed all of the steps in the appropriations process on time since 1996. Many years, Congress has passed no budget resolution at all. Instead, the process has become increasingly centralized, with party leadership drawing up 'omnibus' spending packages that combine all the appropriations bills into a single piece of mega-legislation, which lawmakers are given essentially no time to read or debate.
We are supporting a Convention of States precisely because our legislators refuse to create a balanced budget, or any kind of timely budget at all. We want our citizens to know that, just as they must create a budget for their own households, we should be able to expect the federal government to find a way to work through their difficulties and produce a budget for the country that provides fiscal responsibility. That is what an Article V Convention could allow us to do: to enforce the creation of a federal balanced budget.
