The Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., held a hearing today to learn more about continued funding of unauthorized federal programs.  Enzi said that the issue exposes a fundamental breakdown in America’s budget process that could have significant consequences for not only government, but also the nation.

“An essential premise of good government is that Congress should authorize programs and activities before it funds them,” Chairman Enzi said.  “If we relinquish our responsibility to regularly review and reform these programs, all of our government funding will essentially operate on ‘auto-pay.’ This will prevent us from having the flexibility to support important priorities, or improve and eliminate government programs not delivering results.”

Chairman Enzi noted that, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), most of the current $310 billion in unauthorized appropriations is funding program authorizations that have been expired for a decade or more, some more than thirty years ago.

He said that Congressional appropriations have become increasingly divorced from authorizations despite rules in place in both chambers of Congress to prevent unauthorized appropriations. Enzi said that it is unfortunate that these rules are not comprehensive, not self-enforcing, and rarely used in actual practice. 

“When Congress authorizes a program, it is creating a federal solution to a perceived need.  But over time, needs change and technology evolves. Careful examinations of these programs can help avoid creating new ones that duplicate those already being funded,” Chairman Enzi said.  “Ultimately, if we are going to cure our chronic overspending habit, we must fix America’s broken budget process, starting with the Congressional authorization and appropriations process.”