Resources and Recommendations for Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform

In February, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 established the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform (JSC) tasked with reporting legislation by November 30 to improve the budget process.

With the JSC preparing for a likely mark-up during the week of November 12, we reiterate our support for their bipartisan work to fix our broken budget process. 

Over the past six months, we have provided JSC members and staff with our best policy and technical advice on a number of possible reforms, including our Recommendations to the JSC. Here are select additional resources we have published and provided to the JSC and budget community to encourage positive steps the JSC could take to fix the budget process: 

• Joint Select Committee Reform Options – We’ve recently commented on over a dozen items publicly reported to be under consideration. This memo also pushes the JSC to consider a few complementary reforms from our recommendations.
• Including Debt Targets in the JSC’s Budget Process Reform Package – We encourage the JSC to include some form of debt targets in their legislation. This recent memo explains the benefits of a target, discusses how to choose a good target, and suggests an accompanying enforcement mechanism.
• JSC Testimonies - We were honored to have our president Maya MacGuineas and our Co-Chair Leon Panetta testify before the JSC. 

You can also find numerous additional budget process related publications and ideas as part of our Better Budget Process Initiative.

Fixing the Congressional budget process is an important step in addressing our nation’s pressing fiscal challenges. We look forward to the release of the JSC's legislation and are committed to continue working with them.