ABSTRACT
The budgetary process is supposed to exemplify congressional politics in routine matters. Since 2010, a new normal has emerged, with changes to political actors’ relationships, a revised appropriations cycle, statutory changes, and a ban on “earmarks,” all of which is exacerbated by pandemic budgeting. The 1974 Budget Act took a previously ad hoc process of appropriations bills and created a comprehensive procedure for discretionary spending, replete with a new Congressional Budget Office and a new budget committee in each chamber of Congress. The decade 2010–2020 is notable for both its metrics of dysfunction and the additional worrisome tools that Congress created for itself, particularly the earmarks ban, the sequestration regime under the BCA of 2011, and the regular (and unnecessary) inclusion of the debt ceiling in budget negotiations. The challenges ahead are great, but reforms are underway that may improve the process.
