Fair and Smart Budget Reforms Deserve Vote

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and committee member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released bipartisan legislation Friday to reform the federal budget process. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Grassley (R-IA), Kaine (D-VA), Crapo (R-ID), King (I-ME), Graham (R-SC), Coons (D-DE), Barrasso (R-WY), Blunt (R-MO), Johnson (R-WI), Perdue (R-GA), Kennedy (R-LA), Cramer (R-ND), and Braun (R-IN). The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Chairman Enzi, Senator Whitehouse, and the other co-sponsors have shown tremendous leadership by coming together to fix our broken budget process. Their plan is truly bipartisan, and it identifies realistic reforms to help turn the budget from a political document into an effective governing tool. Perhaps most importantly, their proposals would push policymakers to establish fiscal goals and would create a new process to help Congress put our unsustainable debt on a reasonable path.

This legislation will also improve transparency and accountability while reducing unnecessary brinkmanship and make it easier for policymakers to work together. It does all of this in a fair and smart way that doesn’t try to prescribe policy outcomes and stoke division.

Process changes alone cannot solve our fiscal challenges, but they are the guardrails we need to get there. When respected Senators from opposite parties come together with serious solutions, their colleagues should listen.

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