Fiscal Year 2017 Appropriations: Poor Track Record, Poor Outlook

In January 2016, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared their intention to punctually approve the 12 appropriations bills that fund the federal government.  Perhaps this declaration was designed to mark the ten-year anniversary of the last time this feat was accomplished, in fiscal year (FY) 2006.

Congress’s track record of approving the appropriations bills as required by the budget process has been downright atrocious over the past decade.  Since the earmark moratorium was established at the beginning of FY 2011, Congress has twice failed to pass the bills at all, instead funding the government via a continuing resolution (CR), which implements funding levels from the prior year.  In each of the prior fiscal years dating back to FY 2006, Congress passed the bills well after the statutory deadline. 

On top of failing to pass the bills on time, members of Congress have bundled them together in various ways each year since FY 2006, combining either 11 or 12 of the bills in one package seven times in 10 years.  The end result of this poor example of governance is thousands of pages of text approved simultaneously, leaving the public minimal time for review. 

The following is a summary of FYs 2011-2017:

• FY 2011: no appropriations bills; funding via a full-year CR.
• FY 2012: consolidated appropriations package for the entire fiscal year signed into law on December 23, 2011, nearly three months late.
• FY 2013: no appropriations bills; funding via a full-year CR.
• FY 2014: consolidated appropriations package signed into law on January 17, 2014, more than three months late.
• FY 2015: consolidated appropriations package funding 11 of 12 appropriations bills signed into law on December 16, 2014, more than two months late; Homeland Security appropriations bill signed into law on March 4, 2015, more than six months late.
• FY 2016: consolidated appropriations package signed into law on December 18, 2015, more than two months late.
• FY 2017: thus far, four bills have been approved by Senate committees and three bills have been cleared by House committees.

According to a May 9, 2016 Congressional Quarterly article, since FY 2002, Congress has completed its spending bills an average of 91 days late in non-election years and 144 days late in election years.  Stopgap measures to fund the government until the appropriations bills could be passed were required in 57 percent of these years.

Lesson for Political Science 101:  members of Congress have not been very good at the most basic aspect of their job – passing the 12 annual appropriations bills on time.

To make matters worse, representatives have routinely made a mockery of their own transparency rules.  On January 5, 2011, the House of Representatives adopted a rule stipulating that legislation must be made available to the public for three days prior to a vote.  However, this rule can be more accurately described as the “24-hours-and-two-seconds rule:”  a bill will be posted just before midnight (e.g., on a Tuesday) and voted on just after midnight three calendar days later (Thursday morning), thus satisfying the letter, if not the intent, of the rule.  Needless to say, this is not a reasonable interpretation of “three days,” and certainly not nearly enough time to review an omnibus appropriations package of several thousand pages.

Despite the pledge made by the current Republican leadership, passing the FY 2017 appropriations on time seems unlikely given Congress’s recent track record and the failure to approve more than one-third of the bills out of committee to date.  The November elections make this possibility even more remote.  The inability to adhere to the requirements of the budget process is one of many reasons for both Congress’s unpopularity and the lack of trust that taxpayers have in their elected officials.  Maybe the message that this behavior is not acceptable will force members of Congress to recommit themselves to the core responsibilities of their job beginning in 2017 and finally passing the appropriations bills on time once again.