Nearly five decades ago, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974 was passed into law. Since then, this law has governed how members elected to the U.S. Congress draft and pass the U.S. government’s budget.
Except Congress doesn’t seem to follow its own law, as Veronique de Rugy explained in an op-ed at Reason:
Since Congress designed and implemented the last budget process in 1974, only on four occasions have all of the appropriations bills for discretionary spending been passed on time.
It’s common knowledge among budget experts that the budget process is “broken.” Anyone who regularly reads this column knows about debt limits, government
