Tag: Budget process

Included in the package was language establishing a new Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform. Success will depend, in part, on just how much the panel tries to tackle. Consider first the motivations of individual rank-and-file members of both the House and Senate. Historically, floor amendments to spending bills have represented an important way members are able to exert influence on spending measures. Rank-and-file members, then, may be facing competing incentives: a desire to have a predictable process on one hand, and an incentive to use the process to achieve certain goals on the other. Of the sixteen members of the JSC, seven sit on either the House or Senate Appropriations Committees, and six are members of the House or Senate Budget Committees. sits on both the House Budget and House Appropriations.) The potential for jurisdictional conflict is not a new hurdle for budget process reform. If the JSC is to pursue reform ideas that would affect the current committee balance of power, such as strengthening the Budget Committees, it will need to navigate these competing incentives. As the JSC process gets under way, there are indications that both the broader budget reform community and panel members themselves are taking seriously these questions of incentives.