Bipartisan Group Urges Budget Reforms

A bipartisan group of 24 members of Congress – led by Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Jodey Arrington (R-TX) – sent a letter to House leadership today calling for the inclusion of budget reforms in the next appropriations package, which could pass by March 11.  The group suggested the inclusion of a bipartisan fiscal commission or debt ceiling reforms as two possible options.

Below is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

It’s very encouraging to see dozens of members from both parties exercise leadership, recognizing the danger posed by our growing debt and calling for steps that begin addressing these challenges. While borrowing earlier in the pandemic made sense, our debt is now on track to exceed record highs and this group is right that now is the time to start to meaningfully address our fiscal challenges.

Ideally, lawmakers would consistently put forward comprehensive and realistic budget plans for our country. Unfortunately, our broken budget process and lack of political will result in it having been many years since Congress has passed a governing budget, with a norm of lawmakers repeatedly blowing past budget deadlines and leaping from crisis to crisis with little focus on the long-term consequences.

We applaud this bipartisan group for putting forward reasonable ideas that would encourage lawmakers to generate bipartisan solutions to address our debt. A bipartisan fiscal commission could help the parties to come together on ways to bring our debt under control.  Meanwhile, reform to the debt limit could reduce the unacceptable risk of default while encouraging Congress to complete its budget on time and facilitating consideration of debt reduction plans. These commonsense ideas would be important steps in the right direction. 

We hope more lawmakers join these members in advancing bipartisan solutions that improve our nation's unsustainable debt outlook.

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For more information, please contact Kim McIntyre, Director of Media Relations, at mcintyre@crfb.org