#Budget Process

Last week Senators Jeff Sessions (R-Al.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Me.) introduced the “Honest Budget Act,” which proposes a number of fiscally responsible reforms to the budget process.The bill would strengthen the budget point of order preventing consideration of appropriations bills…

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Al.) both have expressed support for biennial budgeting -- a proposal to convert the budget process to a two-year cycle. The comments were made at a hearing last…

This afternoon the House is scheduled to consider a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through Nov. 18 at the $1.043 trillion level included in the debt limit law. The government is currently operating under a short-term continuing resolution…

Former CBO directors Rudolph Penner and Alice Rivlin were among the budget experts who testified in front of the House Budget Committee last week about the country’s broken budget process and offered their suggestions.Penner emphasized that Congress should get serious…

A government shutdown was avoided last night when Senate leaders reached agreement on a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through Nov. 18 at the $1.043 trillion level included in the debt limit law.Due to a dispute over offsets…

The “dynamic scoring” debate is back again. (more…)

In a new report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the automatic spending cuts that would occur if the super committee is unsuccessful. The committee has the goal of reducing the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over ten…

President Obama offered his deficit-reduction recommendations to the congressional super committee on Monday, urging the panel to find both spending cuts and additional tax revenue to far exceed its assigned goal.Obama put Medicare and Medicaid on the negotiating table, giving…