Gluesenkamp Perez, Moore Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Reform the Congressional Budget Process

Today, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) and Rep. Blake Moore (UT-01) introduced the bipartisan Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act (CCBA) of 2024. The bill would reform the current federal budgeting process and establish a more inclusive, comprehensive, and efficient process to make a federal budget that works better for the American people.

The Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2024 would:

• Allow the House and Senate appropriations committees to continue managing discretionary spending;
• Require each committee with direct spending or revenue jurisdiction to submit line items for each spending or revenue account along with any proposed changes to the House and Senate appropriations committees;
• Require the House Appropriations Committee to compile the 12 appropriations bills and submissions from other committees and send the complete budget to the House floor;
• Require the House Budget Committee and Senate Budget Committee to report a budget baseline level if Congress fails to agree to a concurrent resolution on the budget by April 15th of each year
• Repeal the budget reconciliation process and Byrd Rule, requiring Congress to manage direct spending and revenue in the same bill as appropriated spending. 

“Our national debt is a real, growing problem, affects our economy, and has been overlooked by Congress for too long,” said Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez. “It’s beyond time to act – which is why we’re introducing bipartisan legislation to revamp the annual budget process so Congress can have more productive conversations about our spending and revenue. Southwest Washington taxpayers will be better off for it.”

“Reversing Washington’s debt culture has been one of my top priorities in Congress, and that starts with reforming our broken federal budget process,” said Rep. Moore. “We must break the habit of appropriating with rushed deadlines and inefficient processes and rework our process so we can put together a strong budget with input from more members and committees. The Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2024 is an important next step in reforming this critical process and getting our fiscal outlook back on track.”

Full text of the legislation is available here.

A section-by-section summary of the legislation is available here.

A flowchart outlining the CCBA’s budget process is available here.