February 13, 2008

Balancing the Bottom Line
Encouraging fiscal responsibility through biennial budgeting.
By Jeff Sessions and Johnny Isakson
(As appeared in National Review Online)

No longer concerned with watching the bottom line, the congressional budgeting and spending process has become a punchline. Fortunately, there is something we can do to begin addressing the federal government's budgetary woes: move from a one-year budget cycle to a two-year cycle. Such a change would help restore order to the budget process and promote the responsible use of taxpayer dollars.

Last year is a perfect example of the breakdown of the budget process. The 2008 fiscal year began on October 1 without a single 2008 appropriations bills having been signed into law.

The first — and, as it turned out, the last — individual 2008 appropriations bill was finally signed six weeks after the fiscal year had begun. The other 11 bills were eventually rolled into one, giant omnibus spending bill that was signed into law six additional weeks later — almost three months into the new fiscal year.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated instance. Last year may have been a particularly egregious example, but in recent years, Congress has repeatedly failed to pass spending bills on time and frequently resorted to massive omnibus bills instead of considering each spending bill individually.

Omnibus spending bills present a huge obstacle to the responsible appropriation of taxpayer dollars because they discourage careful management. The length of omnibus spending bills prevents careful study of the legislation's details, so it is easier to overlook projects and programs that do not deserve funding. A little extra spending here and there is more likely to go unnoticed by lawmakers working with a 600-page document containing billions of dollars in spending.

Members of Congress — of both parties — certainly bear a fair share of the blame for the failures of the past several years. But our current process makes it very difficult to adequately consider all 12 spending bills and pass them on time.

Each year, Congress has nine months to pass a budget and 12 separate appropriations bills, in addition to conducting oversight and debating all the other legislation that Congress must consider each year. And it is the rare year that Congress actually manages to adequately fulfill all these responsibilities. Usually, something gets neglected, and all too often, that something is a careful review of congressional spending.

Biennial budgeting would help restore order to the spending process. Under a system of biennial budgeting, Congress would take one year of each Congress to pass a two-year budget and two-year appropriations bills, leaving the other year free for reviewing bills and revising or repealing broken programs.

Members of Congress should spend as much time reviewing programs and funding as we do crafting budget and appropriations bills. Biennial budgeting would give Congress the time to look at programs' performance and make adjustments accordingly.

The Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, which will be introduced in the Senate this week, would mandate that Congress spend the first session of each Congress considering and adopting a two-year budget resolution and two-year appropriations bills. The second session would then focus on reviewing the policies and programs funded in the budget.

Importantly, the bill would not just create time for us to actually examine what we are funding, it would also actively encourage such examination — for instance, by requiring that the General Accounting Office give priority to requests for audits and evaluations of programs and activities during the second year of the two-year budget cycle. The bill would also require self-examination by agencies, which would be required to submit a list of proposed legislative changes to congressional authorizing committees at the beginning of the second session of each Congress.

As members of Congress, we are entrusted with the responsibility of spending taxpayer dollars wisely. Our current budget and spending process does not help us meet that responsibility. Instead, it creates an atmosphere in which waste is all too common. Biennial budgeting would help encourage fiscal responsibility at a time when all of us agree we must focus more attention on the nation's bottom line. We look forward to working with members of both parties to advance the Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act in Congress.

— Jeff Sessions is a Republican U.S. senator from Alabama. Johnny Isakson is a Republican senator from Georgia