Congress last passed a budget on time in 1996

quote:

---

This mad end-of-year rush has become the norm. Congress spends all year avoiding what is arguably its primary responsibility: crafting and passing a budget.

Ideally, the process moves in a thoughtful and orderly fashion over the course of a year, in what is often called "regular order." This process was codified by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which created both the Congressional Budget Office and the modern budgeting process.

Under regular order, the president releases a budget proposal early in the year, Congress passes a budget resolution no later than mid-April, and appropriations committees draw up spending bills for a dozen or so spending categories. Each of those is debated and voted on one at a time, with enough time to read, debate, and amend the bills. All of this is supposed to happen before October 1, the beginning of the federal government's fiscal year.

Congress has not completed all of the steps in the appropriations process on time since 1996. Many years, Congress has passed no budget resolution at all.

---