After the Super Committee: Is Budget Process Reform Part of the Answer?

When: Tuesday, December 13th from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Where: House Budget Committee Hearing Room, 210 Cannon House Office Building

Please join us as the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform hosts a policy briefing to discuss four new papers on budget process reform. The briefing will be held in the House of Representatives Budget Committee Hearing Room, 210 Cannon House Office Building, on Tuesday, December 13 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

This fall, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (popularly, the "Super Committee") created by the Budget Control Act of 2011 tested the possibility that our fiscal challenges could be met by bypassing the regular process. Its collapse just before Thanksgiving has pointed everyone back to the drawing board. We now must reconsider whether it is possible to reform the regular budget process, to help support those leaders prepared to make the tough choices needed to put the federal budget on a sustainable course.

Last year, the Peterson-Pew Commission detailed a number of proposals for budget process reform in its report Getting Back in the Black. Please join us for this timely briefing with leading experts to discuss proposals for budget process reform that would help put our nation on a sound fiscal path. The panel will discuss papers on four topics: Fiscal Rules and Their Uses, Performance Budgeting, Multi-year Budgeting, and Budgeting for Emergencies.

These four papers, plus one on issues in designing a debt trigger released in response to the President's trigger proposal in April, explore core elements of the Commission's proposed reform agenda. They highlight lessons from recent federal budget experience, from other nations' budget reforms, and from reforms in the U.S. States and discuss the Commission's options in greater depth, presenting variations on its previously recommended options, and exploring the challenges and payoffs of implementing such reforms.

Opening Remarks:

  • Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI)
  • Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Discussants:

  • Jim Nussle, Co-chair, Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform
  • Tim Penny, Co-chair, Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform
  • Phil Joyce, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland
  • Marvin Phaup, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University
  • Paul Posner, Public Administration Program, George Mason University
  • Steve Redburn, Project Director, Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform

Please RSVP to Emmanuel Holder at holder@newamerica.net.

For media inquiries, please contact Sabrina Siddiqui at siddiqui@newamerica.net.

Room for this briefing provided by the office of Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI).