Congress Finally Moves on Fiscal 1986 Money Bills

The House didn't set any efficiency record this year in moving fiscal 1986 money bills. In the past two years, it completed action on 11 of the 13 regular appropriation bills by the middle of June. This year it was the middle of July before any of them came up for a floor vote. The holdup was caused by Congress' inability to agree on a first budget resolution. More than a decade ago, Congress set up a formal budget process that called for adoption by May 15 of a so-called first budget resolution setting a target limit on federal spending and priorities for the way those funds would be spent. To make sure that the limits would have real meaning, Section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act says that spending legislation—appropriation bills—cannot be considered until Congress has agreed on the budget resolution. That process worked fairly well until this year. However, when a budget ...