ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a wide variety of budget challenges Congress faces in the new century. It considers a problem that has plagued Congress since the late 1990s: an inability to keep the government funded and fully functioning in a timely manner. The chapter focuses on some overarching criticisms of how Congress handles the power of the purse vested in it in the Constitution. The most common complaint about the federal budget from informed observers is concern about the persistent and potentially destabilizing deficits the government runs. In order to facilitate action in the balky Senate, the supercommittee's proposal could not be filibustered, similar to reconciliation bills in the normal budget process. The government had been on temporary funding since the beginning of the fiscal year that had started more than six months earlier. To avoid a government shutdown Congress has to pass, and the president sign, a continuing resolution.
