Bills Introduced – 10-18-24

Yesterday, with the House and Senate meeting in pro forma session, there were 30 bills introduced. None of those bills are likely to receive additional coverage in this blog. There are, however, two items of interest. The first is that HR 10000 was introduced, the first time that congress has had to resort to a 5-digit bill number. That combined with the really small number of bills passed to date (106 bills) shows just how ineffective Congress has become. It would be really interesting for someone to compile a report on the legislative efficiency of the members of Congress.

The second item of interest is a bill that I would like to mention in passing:

HR 9999 To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to include timely completion of budgetary actions as an essential purpose of such Act and to establish limitations on the official travel of Members of Congress upon failure to timely adopt a concurrent resolution on the budget, and for other purposes. Arrington, Jodey C. [Rep.-R-TX-19]

There have been any number of bills introduced this session (and in sessions past, to be sure) that have purported to try to hold congresscritters to account for passing a federal budget. This is the first that I recall having used congressional travel monies as the incentive to get our elected officials to do their job.

Section 301 of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 already requires that: “On or before April 15 of each year, the Congress shall complete action on a concurrent resolution on the budget for the fiscal year beginning on October 1 of such year.”

There is, of course, no current enforcement of that ‘shall complete’ requirement, as the Supreme Court (and not just the current packed Court) would never allow any legal action to enforce that requirement under the separation of powers standard. The only ones that could enforce that are the voters, who for the most part do not really care about the budget or most of the activities of Congress.

This bill does not have much chance of actually being considered, much less enacted into law. Even if it were, there would be any number of legislative or administrative workarounds that would still allow for official travel payments in the ‘unlikely’ (sigh) event that Congress failed to do its duty. As with most of these bills, there is little chance that they will be considered, much less voted upon, or sent to the President. This is political posturing, nothing more, and just weeks before the election.