I wanted to know more about the history of the budget and appropriations process in DC. What follows is literally a copy and paste from two sources:
The Congressional Appropriations Process: An Introduction
Omnibus Appropriations: Overview of Recent Practice
Here you go:
Congress annually considers several appropriations measures, which provide discretionary funding for numerous activities - for example, national defense, education, and homeland security - as well as general government operations. Congress has developed certain rules and practices for the consideration of appropriations measures, referred to as the congressional appropriations process.
There are three types of appropriations measures. Regular appropriations bills provide most of the funding that is provided in all appropriations measures for a fiscal year and must be enacted by October 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. If regular bills are not enacted by the beginning of the new fiscal year, Congress adopts continuing resolutions to continue funding, generally until regular bills are enacted. Supplemental appropriations bills provide additional appropriations to become available during a fiscal year.
The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations have jurisdiction over the annual appropriations measures. Each committee is organized into subcommittees, with each subcommittee having responsibility for developing one regular annual appropriations bill to provide funding for departments and activities within its jurisdiction.
Each House appropriations subcommittee is paired with a Senate appropriations subcommittee and the two subcommittees jurisdictions are generally identical. The current appropriations subcommittee structure includes the following 12 subcommittees:
- Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
- Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
- Defense
- Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies
- Financial Services and General Government
- Homeland Security
- Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
- Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
- Legislative Branch
- Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
- State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
- Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Traditionally, temporary funding has been provided in the form of a joint resolution to allow agencies or programs to continue to obligate funds at a particular rate (such as the rate of operations for the previous fiscal year) for a specific period of time, which may range from a single day to an entire fiscal year. These measures are known as continuing resolutions (or CRs).
In only four instances since FY1977 (FY1977, FY1989, FY1995, and FY1997) were all regular appropriations enacted by the start of the fiscal year. In all other instances, at least one CR was necessary to fund governmental activities until action on the remaining regular appropriations bills was completed.
For nearly two centuries, regular appropriations bills were considered and enacted as individual measures. In 1950, Congress undertook what was considered at the time a one-time experiment intended to improve legislative efficiency by enacting all of the regular appropriations bills for FY1951 in a single measure.
Omnibus appropriations have been a common feature of the appropriations process since 1982. At least one measure containing two or more regular appropriations acts has been signed into law for 29 of the 42 fiscal years from FY1983 through FY2024. In total, 36 omnibus appropriations measures have been enacted since 1982, serving as the legislative vehicle for 276, or 52.6%, of the 525 possible regular appropriations bills over this period.
Now me again... the word "regular" appeared several times in what you see above. The phrase "regular order" refers to a traditional, committee-centered process of lawmaking.
I'm going to give you one more source: The "Regular Order": A Perspective. And from it:
Regular order is generally viewed as a systematic, step-by-step lawmaking process that emphasizes the role of committees: bill introduction and referral to committee; the conduct of committee hearings, markups, and reports on legislation; House and Senate floor consideration of committee-reported measures; and the creation of conference committees to resolve bicameral differences. Many Members and commentators view this sequential pattern as the ideal or "best practices" way to craft the nation’s laws. Regular order is a lawmaking process that promotes transparency, deliberation, and the wide participation of Members in policy formulation.
Me again... and this brings me to Mike Johnson. From his own Speaker's page:
Fiscal Responsibility
Because government has refused to live within its means, America is facing an unprecedented debt and spending crisis. Federal debt now exceeds $33.5 trillion, and our current fiscal path is unsustainable and dangerous, jeopardizing our nation’s economic growth, stability and the security of future generations. Congress has a moral and constitutional duty to resolve the crisis, bring spending under control, balance the federal budget, reform and modernize entitlement programs, eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, pursue continued pro-growth tax reforms and permanent tax reductions, and restore regular order and accountability in the budget and appropriations processes.
Me, to wrap up... the reason this CR fiasco is such a failure is because it is a broken promise. Johnson has no commitment to regular order. A few people got together and negotiated a boondoggle omnibus bill labeled as a "continuing resolution" and tried to shove it past everyone in less than 24 hours before the scheduled vote.
That's corrupt and wrong. Johnson has to go. He is not a man of his word, and there is no regular order to our government.
8 Comments
Excellent breakdown Brett, and great insight and explanation. Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Good analysis. You would think with Trump's mandate that Texas and the US would get a grip on spending
You would think so, Chris. But some people are slow to get the memo and read it.
And Merry Christmas to both of you! May God continue to deliver the USA.
Good analysis. Unfortunately a large potion of our population has either been indocrinated or have chosen to be willfully ignorant to the point that they have forgotten that this nation was formed to have a government for the people by the people.
Thanks for that Brett, good stuff. It will be interesting to see if public engagement is now a meaningful part of the process. X and the millions of outraged peeps basically shut this CR down in about 12 hours. I also agree that Johnson has shown he has no credibility or chops to hold the seat, we need our 21st century Newt Gengrich to get the house in order.
Thanks, Brett. Good content, but some of it was indecipherable to me. Need to go brush up my vocabulary. Merry Christmas!
Great research, info and commentary! Thank you! The November election brought a "Trump Effect". Patriots are wide awake, watching, calling, emailing and texting elected officials on a level I haven't seen since Newt's Contract With America. I am more hopeful than ever before that the American Dream will not be lost on our watch.
Thanks for the breakdown and all the information you provided. Please know I read everything I just don’t always comment.