1: Budget Process

Strengthening the Federal Budget Process

Other Information:

This set of memoranda will discuss how policymakers and managers can cope with the collision between lower resources and sustained high expectations for public services, what options exist for the nation to reconcile its animosity to larger government with its growing appetite for public goods and services. And, what kinds of specific recommendations can be made to improve the way Congress and the agencies allocate increasingly scarce resources. Memo Overview: It is now widely understood that the federal government faces a large long-term mismatch between its policy commitments and its projected revenues. Closing this fiscal gap will, by all authoritative accounts, require hard choices to yield trillions of dollars in budget savings. Achieving these while sustaining the nation’s highest public priorities, supporting robust and sustained economic growth, and dealing with inevitable emergencies and surprises will be difficult at best. Soon after the fall elections the U.S. will approach a “fiscal cliff” which provides still another opportunity for negotiated agreements on large policy adjustments to address the long-term problem. Continued stalemate would trigger sudden across-the-board spending cuts and massive tax increases, pitching the nation back into recession and greatly complicating an already staggering political and fiscal challenge. Whatever budget savings are negotiated, whether on this or the far side of the fiscal cliff, must be implemented and sustained year by year through the federal government’s budget process. At this inopportune time, the federal government’s budget process has virtually seized up. Routine decisions on annual discretionary spending are usually late, causing uncertainty and disruption. The largest parts of the budget, including revenue policy and entitlements, are on autopilot. Major decisions to reform the tax code and adjust spending priorities are blocked or deferred. Even if the familiar budget process were working smoothly, however, it would not be up to the tasks now facing us. We need a new approach that is more far-sighted and strategic, more focused and disciplined. To help the next Administration and the next Congress be better equipped to meet the fiscal challenge, a group of four expert observers of that process has prepared the attached set of memos. Each memo presents a set of recommended actions – both practical and bold – that deserve serious consideration in a necessary effort to repair and remake the federal budget process. Two of the memos describe steps to expand the budget’s time horizon and to help policy makers act more strategically to meet the public’s highest priorities while finding budget savings sufficient to put the federal budget on a sustainable path. The other two memos are directed, respectively, at the executive branch and Congress, and propose complementary changes to help streamline, focus, and discipline budget decisions and to better fix responsibility for budget outcomes.

Stakeholder(s):

• Steve Redburn: Chair & Co-author -- Steve Redburn directs studies for the National Academy of Sciences and teaches in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration of George Washington University. He is a National Academy of Public Administration Fellow and currently chairs its standing panel on executive organization and management. Dr. Redburn directed a study of the fiscal future of the U.S. in 2008-2009 for a joint NAPA-NAS study committee and was project director for the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform in 2010 and 2011. Prior to retiring from federal service in 2006 he was a senior career executive in the Office of Management and Budget. He is a NAPA Fellow.


• Phil Joyce: Co-author


• Roy Meyers: Co-author


• Paul Posner: Co-author

Objective(s):

1.1: Long Term

1.1.1: Analysis & Proposals

1.1.2: Fiscal Exposure Reports

1.1.3: Accruing Costs

1.1.4: Debt Targets & Budget Savings

1.1.5: Triggers

1.1.6: Targets & Caps

1.1.7: Savings Targets

1.2: Strategy

1.2.1: National Objectives

1.2.2: Federal Programs

1.2.3: Review Leaders

1.2.4: Breaktrhough Returns

1.2.5: Reorganization Legislation

1.3: President's Role

1.3.1: Line-Item Veto

1.3.2: Negotiated Agreement

1.3.3: Budget Modifications

1.3.4: Congressional Direction

1.3.5: Education

1.4: Congressional Budget Process

1.4.1: Budget Leadership

1.4.2: Budget Resolutions

1.4.3: Reconciliation Process

1.4.4: Authorizing & Appropriations Committees

1.4.5: Appropriations Bills

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