Commission Proposals Being Pushed From Day 1

The Budget Brigade is back from the holiday break and ready to hit the ground running in 2009 - and it looks like we're not the only ones. Sens. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) published an op-ed in the Washington Post this morning that restarts their effort to create a bipartisan entitlement reform commission to study the long-term fiscal imbalances in the federal government. Conrad and Gregg are the leaders of the Senate Budget Committee and introduced legislation in late 2007 that would create such a commission (they call it a task force). According to their op-ed, the proposal would:

Establish a process to confront the long-term fiscal imbalance. It would consist of a bipartisan panel of lawmakers and administration officials tasked with developing a legislative proposal to steer our budget back on course. Everything, including spending and revenue, would be on the table.

The panel's proposal would be given fast-track consideration in Congress. But, importantly, nothing could be put forward by the task force without a strong bipartisan agreement among its members.

Progress on this legislation stalled in 2008 as election-year pressures made major policy changes or initiatives difficult to enact (two other proposals from the 110th Congress that would establish similar commissions also made little progress). But Conrad and Gregg are wasting little time in 2009 - launching an op-ed on the first day Congress returns from the holiday break. And with a new administration interested in thinking big, it may be possible to enact one of these commission proposals this year.

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