Trent Lott: “Today as we begin debate on the budget resolution for the next fiscal year, I think it is appropriate that we also think…”

“Today as we begin debate on the budget resolution for the next fiscal year, I think it is appropriate that we also think at this time about the need for budget process reform. Twenty years ago, we passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. I supported it at that time because I thought we needed some process to take a look at how much we were spending, what it was going for, and just basically adding up what we were doing. Up until that time, there was no budget. We had authorization bills and appropriations bills out of the various subcommittees of Appropriations Committee, and nobody ever added them up to see what we were spending really, in total, and what it was doing to the deficit. So we passed the Budget and Impoundment Control Act, and I thought it was a good idea at the time. This bill established our basic budget process as we know it today. Twenty years has been long enough to see what has worked and what has not worked. Some of it has been fine; some of it has not accomplished all we would like for it to have accomplished. So, as the old adage says, 'Hindsight is 20/20.' It is time for us to take advantage of what we can see behind us, learn from it, and make some changes. As we consider this fiscal year 1995 budget, we should also make significant changes in the budget process that the Budget Act, the Budget and Impoundment Control Act, established in 1974.”