APSA Task Force Memorandum: The Appropriations Process

To:             The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress

From:   Nolan McCarty, Princeton University, chair; Sarah Binder, George Washington University; Josh Chafetz, Cornell University; Meredith McGehee, IssueOne; Bruce Patton, Harvard Law School; and Mark Strand, Congressional Institute

Reform: The appropriations process

A Report of the the Subcommittee on Staffing Diversity and Retention of the American Political Science Association Presidential Task Force Project on Congressional Reform[1] All recommendations of the American Political Science Association Presidential Task Force Project on Congressional Reform represent the views of its participants, not of the American Political Science Association. (A PDF copy of this document may be downloaded here.)

Political scientists often teach an idealized version of the congressional budget and appropriation processes known as the “Regular Order.” But most observers and participants in annual appropriations efforts deem the process broken. In this report, we review the state of the process, briefly discuss the forces undermining the textbook process, outline the challenges facing reformers, and propose five steps that the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress might consider. We conclude that Congress should eliminate procedural votes on the debt ceiling and end the ban on congressionally directed spending items. The other potential reforms present some significant opportunities but we urge consideration of some unintended consequences…. (Read more)