Senate Budget Committee Makes Budget Reports Available for the Public Online

Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, announced the first release of a new Senate scorekeeping report.  The report will provide regular budgetary updates to promote transparency in federal spending.

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires Chairmen of House and Senate Budget Committees to provide members of Congress with regular updates on the effects that congressional actions have on the budget.  Up until now, to comply with the law, Chairman Enzi compared current-law levels of spending and revenues to those assumed in the budget, and then he filed those comparisons in the Congressional Record.  This made it extremely difficult to locate the Chairman's findings if you did not know what you were looking for.  The new Senate scorekeeping report goes a step further in making the Chairman’s findings easier to understand and access by putting the reports on the Senate Budget Committee’s website.  The Senate scorekeeping report is compiled with assistance from the Congressional Budget Office.

Congress has not completed each step of the budget process—passing a budget and all 12 appropriations bills before October 1st—in 25 years. This has cultivated a lack of oversight and contributed to increased spending and to a rising debt. The nation’s fiscal outlook is projected to get significantly worse over the next 10 years as federal debt is projected to rise by $13 trillion by 2029.

To make the budgeting procedure better, Chairman Enzi released draft proposals in July aimed at creating a more responsible and accountable budget and spending process. The creation of the Senate scorekeeping report is part of the Chairman’s efforts to reform and improve the Senate's fiscal transparency.

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