U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) on Jan. 11 sponsored bipartisan legislation that would ensure Congress produces a complete budget with all spending and revenue each year.
“Reversing Washington’s debt culture has been one of my top priorities in Congress, and that starts with reforming our broken federal budget process,” said Rep. Moore, who introduced the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2024, H.R. 6953, alongside original cosponsor U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA).
If enacted, H.R. 6953 would reform the current federal budgeting process and establish a more comprehensive and efficient process that requires contributions from committees with direct spending or revenue jurisdiction, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. Moore’s staff.
“We must break the habit of appropriating with rushed deadlines and inefficient processes and rework our process so we can put together a strong budget with input from more members and committees,” Rep. Moore said. “The Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2024 is an important next step in reforming this critical process and getting our fiscal outlook back on track.”
H.R. 6953 would permit both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate appropriations committees to continue managing discretionary spending and require each committee with direct spending or revenue jurisdiction to submit line items for each spending or revenue account along with any proposed changes to both appropriations committees, the summary says.
Additionally, the bill would require the House Appropriations Committee to compile the 12 appropriations bills and submissions from other committees and send the complete budget to the House floor, and require the U.S. House Budget Committee and the U.S. Senate Budget Committee to report a budget baseline level if Congress fails to agree to a concurrent resolution on the budget by April 15 of each year.
The bill also would repeal the budget reconciliation process and Byrd Rule to require that Congress manage direct spending and revenue in the same bill as appropriated spending, states the summary.
“Our national debt is a real, growing problem, affects our economy, and has been overlooked by Congress for too long,” Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez said. “It’s beyond time to act — which is why we’re introducing bipartisan legislation to revamp the annual budget process so Congress can have more productive conversations about our spending and revenue.”