Oversight
Chairmen Enzi and Alexander Request Report on Cost of Student Loan Repayments
WASHINGTON D.C. - Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are asking the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to examine the effects of federal student loan policies on borrowing, loan repayment, cancellation, discharge, and forgiveness. The chairmen are seeking information on income-driven-repayment (IDR) plans. IDR plans allow student borrowers to pay a percentage of their discretionary income e… Continue Reading
07.18.18
Cap Adjustments: How the Government Raises Its Spending Limit
The 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) allows for several cap adjustments to increase spending for specified purposes without triggering a breach of statutory spending limits. These adjustments, which have grown in number in successive spending deals, have supported a staggering $890 billion in discretionary spending beyond the BCA's base caps. View the July 18 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
07.18.18
BUDGET BULLETIN - Cap Adjustments: How the Government Raises Its Spending Limit
The 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) allows for several cap adjustments to increase spending for specified purposes without triggering a breach of statutory spending limits. These adjustments, which have grown in number in successive spending deals, have supported a staggering $890 billion in discretionary spending beyond the BCA's base caps. View the July 18 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
07.17.18
Budget chairs press appropriators on veterans spending
by NIV ELIS
The chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees have weighed in on a debate on how to fund a veterans program that has thrown a wrench into the 2019 appropriations process. Last week, the House and Senate Appropriations committees abruptly canceled a conference committee meeting to sort out differences over a package of three spending bills because of disagreements on veterans funding. Their question is whether to fund an expensive veterans program, the VA Mission Act, under existing bu… Continue Reading
07.17.18
Budget Chairmen Urge Conference Committee to Prioritize Veterans within Existing Spending Limits
WASHINGTON, DC - This week, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and House Budget Committee Chairman Steve Womack (AR-03) sent a letter to the members of the conference committee for H.R. 5895, the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019. In the letter, the chairmen urged conferees to prioritize funding for the programs authorized in the VA MISSION Act, which was signed into law on June 6, 2018, within existing spe… Continue Reading
07.16.18
Who watches the ‘watchdog?’
by SENS. MIKE ENZI (R-WYO.), AND DAVID PERDUE (R-GA.)
Enshrined in our Constitution is one of Congress' most important responsibilities-the power of the purse. This requires lawmakers in Washington to review each and every dollar spent to ensure that the federal government is accountable to the American people. The most common way for Congress to exercise this power is through the annual appropriations process, in which lawmakers allocate money to agencies and programs. Unfortunately, there is one federal agency that operates with little or no publ… Continue Reading
07.13.18
Senate Budget Members Make Bipartisan Request for GAO Study of DOD Financial IT Systems
WASHINGTON D.C. - Building on previous Senate Budget Committee oversight work on the DOD audit, Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) today requested the Government Accountability Office conduct an independent review of the Department of Defense's plans to acquire modern financial information technology systems capable of generating reliable information and supporting credible financial statements. This reque… Continue Reading
07.12.18
Senate Budget Members Make Bipartisan Request for GAO Study of DOD Financial IT Systems
WASHINGTON D.C. - Building on previous Senate Budget Committee oversight work on the DOD audit, Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) today requested the Government Accountability Office conduct an independent review of the Department of Defense's plans to acquire modern financial information technology systems capable of generating reliable information and supporting credible financial statements. This reque… Continue Reading
06.28.18
Changes in Mandatory Programs: An Overspending Tool
The last decade brought a dramatic rise in the use of changes in mandatory programs, or CHIMPs, in annual appropriations bills. View the June 28 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
06.28.18
BUDGET BULLETIN - Changes in Mandatory Programs: An Overspending Tool
View the June 28 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
06.27.18
House Speaker Paul Ryan endorses Enzi's two-year timeframe for federal spending bills
by David Sherfinski
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Wednesday threw his support behind a plan to move to a two-year budget for the federal government, saying it would give Congress more time to get its work done and perhaps end the cycle of shutdown showdowns. But other lawmakers said it will take more than tinkering with the calendar to fix the budget and spending process, which all sides say is broken after three government shutdowns in the last five years. Some of those lawmakers said it was time to disband Congr… Continue Reading
06.27.18
Chairman Enzi Urges Select Committee on Budget Reform to Consider 2-Year Appropriations Process
WASHINGTON D.C. - Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) urged members of the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform to consider moving Congress to a biennial appropriations system, which would provide funding for two years instead of one and allow lawmakers more time to develop and scrutinize government spending. Enzi has led bipartisan efforts in the Senate Budget Committee to explore and reform the budget process. "Our budget and appropriations process … Continue Reading
06.26.18
Senate chairman urges move to two-year budgetary process
by NIV ELIS
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) is throwing his support behind a two-year budget and appropriations process, an option actively being considered by a joint select committee examining the budget process. "I have long believed that moving to biennial appropriations would allow for greater transparency and congressional oversight of executive branch program spending and management," Enzi wrote in a letter to the co-chairs of the joint select committee, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.… Continue Reading
06.19.18
Senate Budget Committee Members Press HHS on Billions of Improper Payments in Medicare and Medicaid
WASHINGTON D.C. - Republican members of the Senate Budget Committee sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar today on his agency's plan to address the $89 billion of improper payments made within the Medicare and Medicaid programs each year. Budget Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) led fellow committee members Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Bob Corker (R-TN), David Perdue (R-GA), John Boozman (R-AR), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Pat Toom… Continue Reading
06.19.18
Senate Budget Committee Members Press HHS on Billions of Improper Payments in Medicare and Medicaid
WASHINGTON D.C. - Republican members of the Senate Budget Committee sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar today on his agency's plan to address the $89 billion of improper payments made within the Medicare and Medicaid programs each year. Budget Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) led fellow committee members Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Bob Corker (R-TN), David Perdue (R-GA), John Boozman (R-AR), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Pat Toom… Continue Reading
06.07.18
BUDGET BULLETIN - Spending Caps and the New Fiscal Cliff
The two-year bipartisan budget law enacted in February significantly increased discretionary spending levels through fiscal year 2019, setting up a $126 billion spending cliff for 2020. View the June 7, 2018 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
06.07.18
Spending Caps and the New Fiscal Cliff
The two-year bipartisan budget law enacted in February significantly increased discretionary spending levels through fiscal year 2019, setting up a $126 billion spending cliff for 2020.… Continue Reading
05.24.18
Senate Budget Chairman Knocks STEM Spending Overlap
Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, on Wednesday voiced strong criticism of the Federal government's spending to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the United States, saying that some of the Federal investment is duplicative and inefficient. The chairman's comments came during a committee hearing to discuss the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) annual Duplication Report. The latest Duplication Report, released in Apr… Continue Reading
05.23.18
Enzi: Increased Fiscal Oversight Needed for Govt. Programs, Agencies and Activities
WASHINGTON D.C. - During a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the Government Accountability Office's annual report focused on additional opportunities to reduce fragmentation, overlap, and duplication in the federal government, Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) said diligent oversight of the programs, agencies, and activities currently being funded is key to addressing these issues. "It is no secret that the federal government spends beyond its means. Our national debt has eclipsed $21 trillion, and th… Continue Reading
05.23.18
Chairman Enzi: Increased Fiscal Oversight Needed for Govt. Programs, Agencies and Activities
WASHINGTON D.C. - During a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the Government Accountability Office's annual report focused on additional opportunities to reduce fragmentation, overlap, and duplication in the federal government, Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) said diligent oversight of the programs, agencies, and activities currently being funded is key to addressing these issues. "It is no secret that the federal government spends beyond its means. Our national debt has eclipsed $21 trillion, and th… Continue Reading
