Human capital and institutional decline in congressional appropriations committees
The new, divided Congress about to be seated in January will feature one of the most reform-minded freshman classes in recent congressional history. As Congress considers sweeping electoral and institutional… Read More
Throwback Thursday: Are we surprised the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform crashed and burned?
Last February, Congress established a Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. The committee, comprised of equal numbers of… Read More
The great earmark debate: Who should determine federal spending priorities?
Opponents in the debate over earmarks have never fallen neatly along the partisan divide. Outspoken critics – organizations such as Citizens Against Government Waste and Taxpayers for Common Sense,… Read More
What’s in the FY2019 House Legislative Branch Appropriation?
On September 10th House and Senate Appropriations Committees announced details of the first of three FY2019 minibus appropriations packages after reaching a conference agreement on appropriations bills for Energy… Read More
How to spot policy riders in appropriations bills
(Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared in Legislative Procedure on August 15, 2018.) By James Wallner Senate Rule XVI (paragraphs 1 and 2) prohibits the inclusion of… Read More
ICYMI: Budget process reform
On June 25th, 2018, the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group partnered with the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution to discuss how to build a better budget process. The… Read More
How pork-barrel spending shapes the ideological composition of Congress
In classrooms across the country, economics professors often use the phrase “guns and butter” as an analogy for the competing priorities nations face when deciding how to allocate resources. Read More
What do Senators actually want for their states and what do they receive? The importance of priorities and easy political wins
Image source: Senate Appropriations By Jeremy Gelman When Congress is doling out money or projects, the evergreen question is who won and who lost? Indeed, after the passage of the… Read More
Who wants to chair the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee? No one.
By Matt Glassman When Representative Charlie Dent (R-PA) resigned from Congress earlier this month, a vacancy was created on the House Committee on Appropriations, where Dent was the… Read More
Pursuing earmarks at the expense of pursuing policy
Image source: Bloomberg By Scott M. Guenther and David M. Searle In early January, President Trump floated the idea of bringing back earmarks to Congress, recalling before a group of… Read More