Budget Process: Considerations for Updating the Budget Enforcement Act
Abstract
It is a pleasure to join you as you think about how to extend and adapt the Budget Enforcement regime. The discretionary spending limits and pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) mechanism established by the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) will expire in fiscal year 2002. Perhaps this timing is appropriate: although most of us would argue that some controls are necessary even in a time of surplus, the details will be different in a time of surplus than a time of deficit. Among the issues your staff asked me to cover is whether and if so how the budget process can be designed to help avoid what has been described as the year-end train wreck. Later in this statement I will talk about some of the particular ideas that have been proposed in this area. First, however, I d like to talk a bit about what a process can and cannot do. A process can surface important issues; it can seek to focus the debate on the important choices. But it is not a substitute for substantive debate no process can force agreement where one does not exist. We ask a great deal of our budget process. We use it to determine aggregate fiscal policy and to allocate resources across different claims. We use it to drive program management. In the context of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, we turn to the budget to tell us something about the cost of obtaining a given level of results. Asking the process to take on the job of avoiding a train wreck may be more than can reasonably be expected. A year-end train wreck is the result of failing to reach agreement or at least a compromise acceptable to all parties earlier in the year. Although it is possible that reaching agreement on some broad parameters early on could facilitate a smoother process, it is not clear that such an agreement will always prevent gridlock it may just come earlier.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 19, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA392811
Entities
People
- Susan J. Irving
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office