Weekly Report - December 7, 2013

Statement

This week was the second to last week of the legislative year. And since Congress doesn't do anything until the very last minute, that means it was a very quiet week. On Tuesday, however, a mad scramble to finish up the nation's business is likely to begin. The Farm Bill remains outstanding, as does the National Defense Authorization and some other fairly large ticket items.

For the life of me, I will never understand why this place decides to do these things the way they do. We've had all year to move the ball forward. The House finished the Defense authorization months ago… Nevertheless, here we are. And we won't know until next week what is going to get done and when.

In any case, the other major item left unresolved is the budget. For the last couple of months, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray, have been in conference together trying to come up with a common budget document that both chambers could pass. That's the way the process is normally supposed to work.

Once a common budget resolution is agreed to, then the appropriations committees have their top-line numbers that they can work within. Then both the House and Senate pass twelve appropriations bills along with their corresponding authorization bills and the American people can rest easy knowing that their elected representatives have gone through the nation's finances line-by-line to make good, informed decisions.

As of right now (well past the deadline), the two budget chairs are reportedly getting close to reaching an agreement on the overall top-line number. Never mind reaching agreement on how to get there.

In other words, there is still a very long way to go.

For my part, I am once again sure that the only way to restore fiscal sanity to this place is to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. One of my proudest moments during my time in Congress was when I was asked to bring the Balanced Budget Amendment to the floor and to lead the debate on behalf of Republicans. I knew passing it would obviously be a tall order, but I was extremely disheartened to see a number of my colleagues who had previously voted in support of such an amendment change their minds and vote no.

For as long as I am up here, I will continue pushing for a BBA. When the United States Senate goes four years without passing a budget and two years without a single one of the twelve appropriations bills -- all the while running trillion dollar deficits -- you have to wonder if a little extra discipline isn't in order. It took us passing a "No Budget No Pay" bill to force the Senate into even adopting a budget in the first place. I have a lot of faith in our system of government, but sometimes it takes a little extra push to get the people who run that government to do the right thing.

In any case, those are just my opinions. I'm always interested to hear where you stand. And as things start to speed up next week, I'll make sure you all are kept up to date. Thanks, as always, and have a great weekend.

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