GOP Pushes For Two-Year Budget

"The Hill" reports:

Republican leaders are considering asking the White House to back a significant reform of the federal budget process in exchange for raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

The GOP wish list for hiking the debt ceiling will be long, and Republican sources contend that overhauling the annual appropriations process is in the mix. The proposed spending revamp, which has been pending in Congress for more than a decade, would require the president to submit a budget every other year at the beginning of the first session of Congress.

Supporters say passing a two-year budget would allow Congress to focus more on oversight issues instead of constantly trying to hit spending deadlines, many of which aren’t met.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has previously voted for a biennial budget bill, has emphasized the need for structural spending reforms when discussing the debt-limit talks. He has declined, however, to go into specifics.

Pressed on the issue last week, Boehner said, “I think there needs to be real review of the entire budget process, and I’ll probably have more to say on that later.”

During a high-profile speech last month in New York, Boehner said it would be “irresponsible” to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process.”

For years, House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) has been seeking to pass legislation calling for biennial budgets.

He told The Hill late last week that he has urged “elected leadership officials” to push the matter in debt-ceiling discussions. Dreier said the legislation he and others are touting is “the most bipartisan budget reform” plan in Congress.

Dreier’s bill has 38 co-sponsors, including Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Allen West (R-Fla.).

The Senate companion measure, crafted by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), has 30 co-sponsors, including Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and John Thune (R-S.D.).

If Boehner calls for President Obama to back this budget reform, it would be seen as another attempt to limit the power of appropriators. Boehner has long battled appropriators over earmarks, triumphing in that battle by passing a ban on lawmaker pet projects that is in effect for the entire 112th Congress.

Dreier acknowledged that some appropriators, most notably Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), are not fans of his bill. However, former Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) is a co-sponsor, Dreier noted.

As The Hill first reported last month, House Republicans have abandoned a campaign proposal by Boehner to draft spending bills by agency instead of lumping Cabinet departments together in bulky appropriations measures.

While that proposal was deemed unworkable, biennial budgeting would fit well into the GOP’s budget-cutting message.

Backers of the bill say it would allow Congress to spend every other year focusing on oversight. They contend lawmakers are consistently playing catch-up on spending bills, leading to large omnibus measures at the end of the year, which become unmanageable.

Many appropriators remain firmly against the idea, which would cut their workload — and authority.