David Thomas: “it is an honor to once again join the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Domenici, and the Chairman of the…”

“it is an honor to once again join the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Domenici, and the Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee, Senator Thompson in introducing legislation to create a two year budget and appropriations process. We've all worked long and hard on this issue and I am hopeful that we can finally enact this common sense reform this year. I've been saying for awhile that the current budget process is breaking down. After last year's debacle with the massive omnibus appropriations bill, I'd argue that the budget process is broken. Congress and the executive branch spend entirely too much time on budget issues. Since the most recent budget process reform in 1974, Congress has consistently failed to complete action on the Federal budget before the start of the fiscal year and, as a result, has increasingly relied on omnibus spending measures to fund the Federal Government. Last year's experience should dispel any lingering doubts about whether the current process is broken. In fact, only four of the 13 regular appropriations bills were passed before funding for 10 Cabinet-level departments was crammed into one bill debated over just a 24 hour period. The budget resolution, reconciliation bill and appropriations bill continue to become more time-consuming. In the process, authorizing committees are being squeezed out of the schedule. There are too many votes on the same issues and too much duplication.”