ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Congress's budget power. It also explores how the budget process drives Congress's whole schedule, effectively crowding out other legislative priorities if those are not timed very carefully. The chapter describes the committees that manage budget decisions for Congress, examining their roles and limitations. It also discusses assessment of how successfully Congress uses its budget power to enforce its policy decisions on the executive branch agencies. The Budget Committees are supposed to manage the budget process by coordinating the revenue work of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees with the federal spending work of the Appropriations Committees. By putting an overarching step into the process, the act sought to make Congress more effective at controlling spending. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave Congress its own budget experts to counter the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which works to advance presidential budget prioritie.
