With Congress in recess for the month of August, it seems appropriate to sit back and prepare for what surely will be an action-packed fall in Washington, DC. The Senate, in particular, has more than a full plate for September and October with the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts, the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, two reconciliation bills, and more than half (7) of the appropriations bills to finish.

The appropriations wrap up this year promises to be particularly dreadful, causing headaches for politicians, congressional staff, and analysts alike. This is because earlier this year, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees reorganized. In a startling display of ignorance and lack of foresight, they choose to reorganize in an inconsistent and uncoordinated way. The result is a different number of appropriations bills in the House and Senate (11 in the House and 12 in the Senate) and a committee structure that does not easily compare between the two chambers (There are only 6 appropriations bills this year with identical jurisdictions).

This will cause much chaos in attempts to form and staff conference committees for the remaining 6 bills with no identical counterpart and much confusion for outside analysts and observers in attempt to track appropriations for different programs across committee jurisdictions. It will almost surely lead to delays and drag out the conference committee process at a time when Congress can least afford to waste time.

Because of this incongruence and also because the Senate is woefully behind in their appropriations work with little hope of catching up, it appears Congress is headed for another round of unending, short-term continuing resolutions, and most likely another extremely large omnibus appropriations bill. As we have previously observed, omnibus appropriations bills are bad policy:

Omnibus bills are bad legislative practice: they remove transparency and accountability from the appropriations process and usually lead to fiscal irresponsibility. The bills are massive, with plenty of cover to hide extra spending, legislative changes, and special interest items that end up making the bill more fiscally irresponsible than if the bills where passed separately. Removing transparency and accountability from the process by which Congress allocates government funds, especially for other members of Congress, is troubling.

- OMB Watcher
June 27, 2005