Using the procedural tactic known as reconciliation to work with the Senate will be among Rep. Tom Price’s priorities as he takes the House Budget Committee gavel, as will changes to the budget process.
Elected Tuesday to follow Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as the committee chairman, the 60-year-old Georgia Republican said he would follow Ryan’s precedent of passing sweeping budgets that balance within 10 years.
In a statement on his election Wednesday morning, Price added that he would look to use reconciliation to move “specific policy items” through the Republican-controlled Senate to President Obama’s desk.
Reconciliation is a legislative maneuver that allows budget-related bills to clear the Senate with only 51 votes, avoiding a filibuster. It has been used in contentious votes over large-scale legislation, such as the Bush tax cuts and Obamacare.
Conservatives have suggested that a Republican Senate majority of 53 seats (with Louisiana’s Senate race still to be determined) could use reconciliation to pass bills on key initiatives, such as repealing parts of Obamacare or tax reform.
Price said he would use “budgetary processes at our disposal … in a transparent manner with consultation and input from members across different committees of jurisdiction and Congress at large.”
His committee also will look to implement unspecified reforms of the budget process.
“Congress budgets and assesses the fiscal and economic impact of policies using a 40-year-old framework in which the default is to spend more, not less,” Price said.
“The current Congressional Budget Office rules and analytical limitations lead to unrealistic projections and are vulnerable to manipulation,” he added, referring to the nonpartisan agency that analyzes the impact of legislation for Congress.
One budget move Republicans have suggested they could implement with control of both the House and Senate is requiring the CBO and other agencies to use “dynamic scoring” to assess tax and spending changes. Dynamic scoring would take into account the macroeconomic effects of changes such as tax rate cuts, which would make them appear less costly to the Treasury than conventional “static analysis” does.
Price is the sponsor of a bill that would require the CBO to provide a dynamic analysis for major legislation. That bill passed the House in April.
