Letter to the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform

Dear Representatives Womack and Lowey:

Congratulations on your appointment to the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform. We are especially appreciative that the legislation establishing your committee ensures that any recommendations for reform and consideration of subsequent legislation will require bipartisan support for enactment.

You have a challenging task ahead, but a successful outcome is essential to restore confidence in Congress’s ability to budget efficiently. The time to reach consensus on bipartisan reform measures, however, is short and therefore limiting your scope of work to a select few of the major reform proposals will be necessary if you are to achieve that success.

Over the last many years, the Bipartisan Policy Center has actively supported the need to reform the congressional budget process. Our consensus-based approach requires that recommendations to address major public policy issues derive from expert policy makers, rigorous analysis, and full debate. That approach has been applied to the recommendations we have developed to reform the budget and appropriation process.