Congressional Panel Considers Budget Reforms
Budget

Congressional Panel Considers Budget Reforms

REUTERS/Zach Gibson

A bipartisan congressional panel tasked with revamping the federal budgeting process on Thursday marked up its proposed legislation ahead of a November 30 deadline.

The panel, created as part of February’s bipartisan budget deal, put forth fairly narrow legislation rather than a more comprehensive overhaul of the budget process.

The major elements of its proposal include:

  • A switch to biennial budgeting
  • Eliminating term limits for the House Budget Committee
  • Requiring the administration to provide some budget data more quickly.

Proposals that did not make it into the legislation, according to The Hill, included “suggestions of aligning the fiscal year with the calendar year, restoring ‘pay-as-you-go’ rules, enacting transparency requirements in the appropriations process and creating new rules for the debt ceiling.”

Lawmakers on Thursday considered a host of amendments during the markup, which was suspended until November 27. You can read more about the amendments at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s blog. And for one lawmaker’s views on what comprehensive fiscal reform should look like, see Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) lengthy proposal published earlier today.

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