With the budget resolution appearing to be stalled in the Congress, attention may soon turn to changing the overall budget process.

The president’s FY2005 budget contains several proposed changes to the congressional rules governing the process by which federal budget policy is legislated. These rules could have dramatic consequences for spending and tax policy over the next 5 years.

While, admittedly, changes in the budget process are not the most exciting of issues, the proposed process changes would likely cause large drops in domestic investments and a continuation of current tax policy and massive federal deficits. Download Full report (.pdf)

Just in time for the start of the Year of the Monkey, on Thursday, Jan. 22, the Senate passed the omnibus conference report (HR 2673) which was approved by the House a month ago.

While timeliness has not been a hallmark of appropriations bills in recent years, this year is proving exceptionally slow. According to budget procedures, appropriations bills are supposed to be finished by June 30 to leave plenty of time to reconcile differences between the House and Senate before the new fiscal year, which starts October 1. But this year, not a single appropriations bill has been sent to the president, and neither house has completed action on all 13 appropriations bills.