Roy T. Meyers

Is there a key to the normative budgeting lock

This article explores how to answer the normative question: ‘What is a good budgetary process?’ It proposes that a deliberative process involving practitioners and academics could identify and justify achievably ambitious standards for budgetary processes, and the best practices for attaining those standards. In hopes of beginning that deliberation, the article sets out a prototype model, and then applies the model to the federal budgetary process.

Late Appropriations and Government Shutdowns: Frequency, Causes, Consequences, and Remedies

This article reviews the history of government shutdowns and evaluates their effects. It first discusses the frequency of late appropriation bills, especially since the passage of the Congressional Budget Act in 1974. Then it examines the commonly suspected causes and the resulting consequences (the most extreme being government shutdowns). Remedies are suggested to alleviate financial, managerial and political costs of government shutdowns.

Regulatory budgeting: A bad idea whose time has come?

Advocates of regulatory relief propose a budget that would annually cap regulatory costs. But emulating fiscal budgeting would be much more difficult than they envision. An arbitrary macrobudgetary constraint would have to be selected, and the potential scope of the regulatory budget would be vast. The process of regulatory budgeting would be very-time consuming, and could increase micromanagement by the Congress. Estimating regulatory costs would be challenging, and ignoring regulatory benefits would be unfair and inefficient. A preferable alternative to regulatory budgeting would be to expand the Government Performance and Results Act to include cost-effectiveness reviews for regulations.

Budgeting during the Clinton Presidency

This article assesses the Clinton administration record of budgeting. During President Clintons two terms, the federal government moved from an era of large deficits to one of equally large surpluses. This turnaround was caused by both the strong economy and the deficit reduction deals of 1990, 1993, and 1997. Defense spending and interest declined as a percentage of the budget, whereas mandatory spending and nondefense discretionary spending increased. Acrimonious interbranch budgetary relationships dominated, with Clinton ultimately winning far more fights than he lost. Executive branch budgetary and financial management capacity improved during the Clinton administration.

Congressional Budgeting at Age 30: Is It Worth Saving?

The congressional budget process is now 30 years old. We review this history to describe why the process was adopted, how it has evolved, and what it has produced. In the early years, the process institutionalized but did not prevent the creation of a significant deficit. During the 1990s, the process was improved and the deficit was converted to a surplus. Since 1999, both the budget process and budget discipline have greatly eroded. We propose some technical and organizational changes that might improve the process, but in the end, what is most needed are leaders who will promote fiscal responsibility for the federal government.

The New Equation at OMB: M + B = RMO

No abstract available.

Is the U.S. Congress an Insurmountable Obstacle to Any “Far-Sighted Conception of Budgeting”?

In recent years, Congress has recurrently failed to meet its minimum responsibilities in federal budgeting. This article analyzes whether it is possible to repair this problem, using concepts popularized by Allen Schick in his influential article “The Road to PPB.” His article compared the PPB reform effort to the history of budget process reforms that started with the design of the executive budget. It publicized a logical sequence of budget process improvements that started with control and then advanced through management and planning. The article did not substantially address the role of Congress, but eight years after it was published, Congress reasserted its constitutional role in the budget process. Its record of performance since then has ranged from mixed to dysfunctional. The Congress has been criticized for budgetary delays, micromanagement, myopia, procrastination, indiscipline, and an inability to prioritize intelligently. If these faults are set in stone, then an integrated system of budgeting, as described in “The Road to PPB” and related work, is unattainable. On the other hand, if reform of Congressional budgeting is politically feasible, improvements to that system can utilize the unique contributions that a legislature can make to a good system of budgeting.

Federal Budgeting and Finance in 1991: The Future is Now

The large federal deficits run throughout the 1980s generated concern that we were mortgaging our future. In 1991, the note came due. The potential for aggravating the long-run deficit problem constrained fiscal policy from reacting to the recession. Institutional and partisan conflict and the controls established by the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) limited responses to a remarkable budgetary opportunity—the dissolution of the Soviet Union—and to a serious budgetary threat—exploding health care costs. The BEA controls were applied rigidly with a few minor exceptions, and credit reform was implemented successfully; on the other hand, Congress and the president made no headway on further deficit reductions even though long-run projections worsened. The agenda-setting role of the presidents budget for the fiscal year 1993 diminished, as the documents format was heavily influenced by the upcoming presidential election. In contrast to this mixed record for federal budgeting, progress was made in building a financial management structure and developing accounting standards.

The President's Fiscal Year 1992 Budget: Almost Quiet on the Budgetary Front

The Fiscal Year 1992 Budget was prepared under unusual conditions. The Persian Gulf War, the piesidents disinterest in domestic issues, the bitter debate over the fiscal year 1991 budget, and the upcoming re-apportionment all combined to make this year atypical The result is a document in which the most substantial change is the cover—a patriotic red, white, and blue Inside, it uses the “one book” format of fiscal year 1991 The budget examines different interpretations of the budget deficit, implements major changes in budgetary accounting, and outlines assumptions made in preparing the budget. Overall, the budget document consolidates the gains made in 1990