Over several decades, the House and Senate have ceded growing amounts of power, authority, and flexibility over federal tax and spending matters to the executive branch. For advocates and defenders of limited government, this is a deeply concerning trend. While the Founding Fathers intended for hundreds of elected representatives to steer and oversee the use of taxpayer dollars and made those officials accountable to their constituents through regular elections, recent decades have seen a single elected person (the president) and thousands of bureaucrats under his authority make decisions originally intended for Congress.
This problem, an abdication of congressional authority and control over the vaunted “power of the purse,” is an issue that Democrats tend to care about more when a Republican is president and that Republicans tend to care about more when a Democrat is president. No matter who is president in 2021, Congress needs to come together now to enact bipartisan legislation that reasserts its primacy over the taxpayers’ purse strings.
This “power of the purse” problem may sound lofty, but the issue may be more familiar to people when they hear of bipartisan examples in recent years. For instance, many observers believed President Trump overstepped executive authority when he directed funds toward building the border wall without clear congressional approval. Similarly, many believe President Barack Obama subverted the will of Congress by funding Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction program without an appropriation. This same tension is demonstrated in executive branch clashes with inspectors general and congressional oversight committees. These conflicts can occur over routine matters or involve some of the most politically contentious issues of recent decades.
Luckily for Congress, lawmakers are not limited simply to expressing their concern, objection, or outrage in these situations. There are bipartisan blueprints for ensuring that future presidents follow congressional intent on federal tax and spending measures.
Below are a few items Congress can get to work on immediately, low-hanging fruit that will help the legislative branch take small steps toward a broader and more important goal.
Pass the Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act: The House passed this bipartisan legislation by voice vote in February, meaning no legislator objected to it. The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to make progress on developing and publishing a regularly updated inventory of federal programs. It strikes at a shocking problem for both the executive and legislative branches of government: No one knows just how many federal programs exist. Congress required OMB to create this inventory through a 2010 law, but OMB has yet to finish the work. The Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act would be a signal from Congress that it needs cooperation from OMB on a long-overdue provision of law. The Senate should pass the Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act and send it to the president’s desk.
Ensure the Pentagon finishes its work on revised Overseas Contingency Operations criteria: The Overseas Contingency Operations account has long been derided by advocates across the ideological spectrum as a slush fund for wasteful spending. In the last six years alone, Congress has appropriated $115 billion to the account that is not directly related to the very “contingency operations” the account is meant to fund. This account operates outside the decadelong spending limits Congress set in the Budget Control Act and therefore is less accountable to taxpayers than the Pentagon’s regular budget. While Congress certainly deserves some of the blame for the account’s excess of slush, the executive branch across multiple administrations has turned a blind eye to the accountability and reform of the account. Just one example: The Pentagon and OMB have not updated their “contingency operations” criteria for 10 years even though America’s overseas operations have changed dramatically in that timespan. It’s past time Congress nudged the Pentagon and OMB in the right direction, and they can do so through the upcoming fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.
Require more executive branch reporting on the impoundment of funds: Last year, Sens. Mike Enzi and Sheldon Whitehouse released the Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act that would help Congress get its budget house in order. One section of that bipartisan legislation would require OMB to report its apportionment of congressionally appropriated funds on a public website. This section would also require OMB to report to congressional committees every time an agency requests appropriated funds that haven’t been approved by OMB in a timely fashion. Though there may be limited acceptable reasons the executive branch would withhold congressionally appropriated funds for a period of time, this provision of the bill would ensure Congress knows about these cases and is empowered to ask questions of the executive branch.
The above reform options are not a blueprint, and, if anything, they are the tip of the iceberg. Congress’s abdication of its authority over federal tax and spending matters has been decades in the making, and it will take years and multiple Congresses to unwind. It will also require diligent work and collaboration from watchdogs, taxpayer advocacy groups, and other policymakers outside government, which play a critical role in bringing issues, reform options, and model legislation to the attention of Congress. If lawmakers and advocates work hard and work together, they may empower Congress in the process. This will, in turn, make all three branches of government more accountable to the taxpayers they serve.
Andrew Lautz is a policy and government affairs manager with the National Taxpayers Union.
