It appears Autumn has finally arrived in Washington. The days are shorter, the leaves are turning, and the air is a bit more crisp. But perhaps the most tell-tale sign is that a new fiscal year has come, yet Congress hasn’t finished writing the checks that will fund government for the next year.

Actually, they are not even close to finished.  As of October 1st, the beginning of the fiscal year, Congress had sent only one of the twelve spending bills to the President—the legislative branch appropriations bill that funds their operations. That bill also contained an extension, or “continuing resolution”, to fund all government programs at last year's spending levels through October 31st. Since then, one more bill (Agriculture) has been enacted and a couple more are ready for the President to sign (Energy and Water, and Homeland Security).

So with a week left in budgetary overtime, eight bills remain, including enormous, critical spending bills like Defense and Labor-Health and Human Services-Education.

You might think, what’s the big deal? So government operates for a while under another stopgap continuing resolution that provides funding at last year’s levels? So what? Well for one thing, it becomes more likely we’ll end up with a dreaded “omnibus” – combining all of the spending bills into one massive, must-pass kitchen sink package that becomes a treasure trove of giveaways and is almost impossible to analyze.

The budgetary delay also has an enormous impact on federal agencies. It paralyzes operations, staff cannot be hired, travel and training is stopped, and this continues for a while even after the bill is finally signed. It takes a while for the actual budget numbers to trickle down through the various departments and agencies, leaving managers in the ridiculous position of catching up with a twelve month budget in nine or ten months.  

As an example, for years veterans’ groups have complained about how budget delays negatively impact the delivery of services for needy vets. In an effort to deal with this, the President recently signed legislation requiring portions of the Department of Veterans Affairs budget be funded a year in advance to ensure continuity and predictability. Many in Congress and the administration claimed this was a victory for veterans, but in reality it was more about budgetary failures in Washington. Instead of facing the problems, Congress just threw their hands in the air and gave up.

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There are no good excuses. Budgetary delays happen under both parties, with mixed or single-party control in the House, Senate and White House.  This year, with healthy Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate, and a Democrat in the White House, cries of Republican intransigence are just a red herring. The House crammed their spending bills through (by limiting amendments and debate), but in the Senate five spending bills still have not been passed even though all but Defense were approved in committee before the August recess. And it’s not like the Senate floor has been bogged down by major legislation. Health care reform hasn’t seen the floor of either chamber, but legislation has gone through naming dozens of Post Offices, awarding golfer Arnold Palmer the Congressional Gold Medal, and establishing a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission.

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Lawmakers are fond of pointing out that the Constitution gave Congress the power of the purse and they rightfully guard that power. But as Spiderman’s Uncle Ben pointed out, with great power comes great responsibility. It’s not like the fiscal year sneaks up on anyone, but still Congress usually finishes the work a couple months late. How about they adopt a New Fiscal Year’s Resolution to get started on FY2011 early and pull a few purse strings to get government funded on time.

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