Ryan to unveil budget reform proposals

December 6, 2011

The Hill

By Erik Wasson

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and members of his committee will unveil a series of reforms on Wednesday to change the congressional budget process.

The set of ten bills will strengthen borrowing and spending caps, curb automatic spending and put more government liabilities on the books, a Budget Committee aide said Monday.

“The incentives currently favor those who seek to increase government spending, and the result is a crushing burden of debt that is hurting economic growth today and threatening economic prosperity tomorrow,” the aide said in an email.

Ryan will be a co-sponsor on each of the bills which have been authored by other members of the committee.

One of these is a line-item veto bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). That bill allows the president to request the rescission of specific spending provisions and to have that request receive an expedited vote in Congress.

Another is sponsored by Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.).

That bill is designed to prevent government shutdowns when appropriations bills run out. Instead it imposes an across-the-board 1 percent cut to all funding if Congress fails to agree on a budget.

Other bills in the series will be similar to The Spending, Deficit, and Debt Control Act of 2009, which Ryan co-sponsored with Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).  It set goals for reducing entitlement spending and put the U.S. on biennial budgets.

Aides said that action on the bills would likely come in the beginning of 2012, before the annual budget process heats up with the submission of President Obama’s 2013 budget in February.

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