[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 33 (Monday, March 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1327-S1328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BIENNIAL BUDGETING

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to express my support for 
instituting biennial budgeting within the U.S. Government. We should 
reform the Federal budget process by converting it from an annual 
spending process to a 2-year cycle, with 1 year for appropriating 
Federal dollars and the following year devoted to oversight of Federal 
programs.
  Under the current budget process, Congress almost never finishes the 
appropriations bills by October 1 and is forced to consider omnibus 
legislation composed of individual appropriations bills that were never 
considered on the Senate floor. Worse still is that we are often unable 
to amend an omnibus appropriations bill and are forced to accept 
provisions that may be objectionable. Because we are constantly racing 
against the clock to finish appropriations, authorizing committees are 
hampered in their ability to conduct effective oversight. This means 
that we have trouble learning about what spending programs work and 
which must be modified or eliminated. Budget reforms are much needed 
and long overdue.
  The amendment that I filed today would require the President to 
submit a 2-year budget at the beginning of the first session of a 
Congress. Members of Congress would then need to adopt a 2-year budget 
resolution, a reconciliation bill if necessary and 2-year 
appropriations bills during that first session. The legislation ensures 
the enactment

[[Page S1328]]

of 2-year appropriations bills by providing a new majority point of 
order against consideration of an appropriations bill that fails to 
cover 2 years. The second session of a Congress would then be devoted 
to the consideration of authorization bills and oversight of Federal 
programs. The result is enhanced oversight that will provide greater 
accountability of government programs and a superior budget process.
  Each year, approximately 40 percent of Congress's debating time is 
spent on appropriations, on the resolution and on the reconciliation 
process. In some years, that number is as high as 60 percent, not even 
reflecting the time that the budget process consumes the entire Federal 
bureaucracy. Moreover through February 18 of this year, House lawmakers 
spent 61 hours over 4 days debating 162 of the nearly 600 amendments 
filed on the 359-page measure to fund government until September. And 
after all the debate and consideration last year, Congress failed to 
adopt the budget or pass any of the 13 appropriations bills for the 
first time since the landmark Budget Act of 1974.
  It is no wonder that the American people are dismayed because all 
they have seen is the chaotic nature of the budgetary process and the 
failure of Congress time and time again to meet statutory deadlines.
  It is important to have a biennial budget because it will allow the 
President--as well as Congress--in the second year to fine-tune the 
budget, revisit issues, improve oversight activities, and--if 
necessary--respond to a downturn in the economy, such as a recession. 
And it would also immeasurably add to accountability to the American 
taxpayer. If you ask the American taxpayer, ``Do you think your Federal 
dollars are being spent wisely and efficiently?''--the response is a 
resounding ``no'' as reflected in many polls and public opinion 
surveys. Only if we improve oversight activities and examine every 
program and agency, will we restore the confidence of the American 
taxpayer in how government spends hard-earned tax dollars.
  Unfortunately, the battle to get the biennial budget passed is not 
new. I have been advocating for budget reform for years and have 
pursued shifting the federal budgeting process to a biennial system 
throughout my tenure in the Senate. In 1997--the year that led to 
record surpluses--I cosponsored the Biennial Budgeting and 
Appropriations Act, S. 261, to amend the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974 to revise the Federal and congressional budget processes by 
establishing a two-year budgeting and appropriations cycle and 
timetable. That bill sat dormant in a Senate committee--as did the next 
four bills of this kind that I have cosponsored since.
  So we find ourselves with record deficits, a complicated and time 
consuming budget process that gives Americans little confidence in 
their government, lack of congressional oversight over the many 
programs and agencies that dispense taxpayer's funds, and the surpluses 
of the 1998-2001 nowhere to be found. If that does not tell us that the 
system is broken, I do not know what does.
  The biennial budget would free up Senate floor time for other 
matters, help us avoid having to consider an end-of-year omnibus bill, 
and provide authorizing committees more time to carry out their 
oversight responsibilities. Biennial budgeting would make us more 
effective legislators and enable us to make more informed choices on 
behalf of our constituents.
  Biennial budgeting is necessary to return us to the path of fiscal 
sustainability and to allow Congress time to engage in meaningful 
oversight of government spending. As such, this legislation is long 
overdue and it is my hope that Congress will finally institute this 
much needed reform.

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