ABSTRACT
The congressional budget process has always been characterized by sharp partisan differences but has declined significantly as polarization has become more intense. The process was established by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, partly in response to President Richard Nixon’s extensive impoundment of duly appropriated funds—a situation reminiscent of President Donald Trump’s 2019 diversion of military construction and other appropriated funds to build a border wall. In 2011, David Eugene Price became Homeland Security’s ranking minority member and once again saw the relatively bipartisan subcommittee process overcome by partisan warfare. For two years running, 2012 and 2013, the bills he had helped assemble were blown up on the floor by incendiary amendments on immigration offered by Rep. Steve King. The Bill Clinton impeachment shaped House politics for years to come. Price and many other Democrats warned that the 1998 exercise might dangerously lower the barriers to politically motivated impeachments.
