The Politics of the Budgetary Process

The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (hereafter the Budget Act) has markedly changed the process of legislation relating to the federal budget and tax policy, especially since 1980 (Fisher, 1975, pp. 26-35). We need not be concerned with the details of the Budget Act; the important point is that a reconciliation resolution passed by Congress specifies the amount by which revenues and/or spending is to be changed in order to meet budgetary targets. This has had the effect of centralizing power in the budget committees and weakening the tax writing committees.

After a tentative start, the Budget Act came to exert an important influence on budgetary politics. In 1980, for the first time, instructions to the tax writing committees mandated a one-year increase of revenues (of $4 billion)--a mandate that was carried out. The Budget Act contributes to fiscally responsible policy, because the budget resolution indicates to the revenue committees the amount of money that must be raised through tax policy for the next three fiscal years. By setting a particular revenue target, the resolution sets the stage for discussions of trade-offs involving

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and Means Committee, the executive's initiative was in response to pressures from regional interests that penetrate the congressional decisionmaking process. Similar dynamics were evidenced in the Senate's consideration of the bill. All those tendencies uniquely characteristic of the Senate since the 1960s (excessive generosity in bestowing tax preferences) were evident in markup in the Senate Finance Committee. However, in the end, the Senate followed the House bill, with only several notable departures; the conference committee markup quickly resulted in agreement on most issues. As in the House and Senate, floor voting on the conference committee's bill followed unusually strict party lines. The Senate vote, which came one day after the House had passed the bill by the narrow margin, resulted in a tie which was decided by Vice President Gore in his capacity as president of the Senate. On August 10, 1993, the budget policy was finally settled. The politics behind the 1993 bill can only be described by reference to the traditional components of the American legislative process: parties, presidents, and most especially, congressional committees. The media covered the politics of the 1993 budget debate, but played no noticeabl
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Approximate Word count = 1764
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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