Mike Enzi: “I rise to talk about the need to fix our broken budget and spending process. Picking up efforts we began in the 114th…”

“I rise to talk about the need to fix our broken budget and spending process. Picking up efforts we began in the 114th Congress, the Senate Budget Committee has spent the last several months holding hearings and meetings with Members of Congress, State officials, the administration, and stakeholder groups to listen to their budget reform priorities. Along the way, we have collected a lot of good ideas. Today, I come to the floor to outline the fiscal reform plan that incorporates a lot of the feedback we received. It reflects suggestions from Members on both sides of the aisle and from groups that span the political spectrum. These reforms are not driven by politics but, instead, are rooted in fixing our broken budget and spending process in favor of a system that works for everyone. In developing this plan, my focus was on creating a durable system to substantially manage our country's finances, to improve transparency, to improve oversight, to improve accountability in the budget process, and to end the brinksmanship in our fiscal debates. I have broken the plan down into four separate discussion drafts, which I am sharing this week with Senate Budget Committee members. Each of the drafts tackles a different aspect of the broken budget and spending process. The first proposal is the most ambitious. It would reorient the budget process around long-term planning and shift the Federal Government to a biennial budgeting and spending system.…”