usmbguest5318
Gold Member
Government shutdowns are a periodicity matters, not lack money matters. Why is that so? Because even if Congress were, say in its last continuing resolution, to have explicitly stated that there was no limit on the amount of spending/borrowing the executive or judicial branch departments, agencies, bureaus, etc., we'd still be in a shutdown situation because Congress grants spending/borrowing authority for a fixed period of time. Quite simply, money executive and judicial branch entities can have at the money in the world, but when the appropriation that provided that money expires, they can't spend it because they no longer have authorization to spend it.
One of Congress' primary duties is to pass a budget legislation. Such legislation is called an appropriation, and what an appropriation is is the authority to spend/borrow money. Congress is the only branch of government that can authorize that money be spent/borrowed. Though the Constitution's Appropriation and Statements of Account clause (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7) does not stipulate the time period an appropriation must cover, the principles of sound management call Congress to appropriate spending authority for long enough periods that the executive branch can obtain the goods and services it needs to do its job. The absence of such a stipulation is why Congress passes continuing resolutions (CRs).
What's the difference between a budget appropriation and a CR? Well, first of all, appropriations are spending authority; they define a sum of money that can be spent/borrowed, the period of time during which that authority is valid, and who is authorized to spend/borrow various sums of money. Thus a CR is a type of appropriation, and in fact, there are three types of appropriations (appropriation bills):
For all the "who struck John" about the current government shutdown, the inescapable fact of the matter is that the root reason the government has shutdown is because the members of the 115th Congress have shirked their duty to pass a regular appropriations bill.
The lack of a regular appropriation isn't egregiously problematic for all units and activities of the executive branch, and only rarely is it so for the judicial branch.Some activities of the government can simply pick up where they left off with little impact other than delays the costs associated with delays.
That said, activities that cannot be performed and paid for in the period covered by a CR simply cannot commence. What kind of activities fall into that realm? All sorts of them...purchases of military hardware and other capital property (fixed assets, in accounting parlance) purchases regardless of whether it's military or not, governmental process improvement initiatives, intelligence gathering equipment, upgrade and maintenance contracts, and more. The simple fact is that for a number of things the government must purchase, the most efficient (cost and process wise) and effective way to do so is via multi-year contracts.
Quite simply, certain entities of the government cannot, given the short term nature of CRs, contract to obtain the goods/services they need. They cannot because they don't know whether, upon the CR's expiration, Congress will authorize the spending authority needed to complete the project. Insofar as such long term endeavors cost tens and more millions of dollars and the government has a fiduciary duty not to assume undue risk, government managers can't very well start an initiative, pay several million or many millions on a few weeks/months worth of it, only to later find out the project has to be cancelled because Congress' next CR didn't include authorization funding the initiative's continuance.
Key Observations Regarding the Appropriations Process:
One of Congress' primary duties is to pass a budget legislation. Such legislation is called an appropriation, and what an appropriation is is the authority to spend/borrow money. Congress is the only branch of government that can authorize that money be spent/borrowed. Though the Constitution's Appropriation and Statements of Account clause (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7) does not stipulate the time period an appropriation must cover, the principles of sound management call Congress to appropriate spending authority for long enough periods that the executive branch can obtain the goods and services it needs to do its job. The absence of such a stipulation is why Congress passes continuing resolutions (CRs).
What's the difference between a budget appropriation and a CR? Well, first of all, appropriations are spending authority; they define a sum of money that can be spent/borrowed, the period of time during which that authority is valid, and who is authorized to spend/borrow various sums of money. Thus a CR is a type of appropriation, and in fact, there are three types of appropriations (appropriation bills):
Regular appropriations bills provide most of the funding that is provided in all appropriations measures for a fiscal year and must be enacted by October 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. If regular bills are not enacted by the beginning of the new fiscal year, Congress adopts continuing resolutions to continue funding, generally until regular bills are enacted. Supplemental appropriations bills provide additional appropriations to become available during a fiscal year.
(Source)
(Source)
For all the "who struck John" about the current government shutdown, the inescapable fact of the matter is that the root reason the government has shutdown is because the members of the 115th Congress have shirked their duty to pass a regular appropriations bill.
The lack of a regular appropriation isn't egregiously problematic for all units and activities of the executive branch, and only rarely is it so for the judicial branch.Some activities of the government can simply pick up where they left off with little impact other than delays the costs associated with delays.
That said, activities that cannot be performed and paid for in the period covered by a CR simply cannot commence. What kind of activities fall into that realm? All sorts of them...purchases of military hardware and other capital property (fixed assets, in accounting parlance) purchases regardless of whether it's military or not, governmental process improvement initiatives, intelligence gathering equipment, upgrade and maintenance contracts, and more. The simple fact is that for a number of things the government must purchase, the most efficient (cost and process wise) and effective way to do so is via multi-year contracts.
Quite simply, certain entities of the government cannot, given the short term nature of CRs, contract to obtain the goods/services they need. They cannot because they don't know whether, upon the CR's expiration, Congress will authorize the spending authority needed to complete the project. Insofar as such long term endeavors cost tens and more millions of dollars and the government has a fiduciary duty not to assume undue risk, government managers can't very well start an initiative, pay several million or many millions on a few weeks/months worth of it, only to later find out the project has to be cancelled because Congress' next CR didn't include authorization funding the initiative's continuance.
Key Observations Regarding the Appropriations Process:
- How many FY 2018 regular appropriations bills have the 115th Congress passed? None.
Ever since their being seated in January 2017, they passed one omnibus bill to get through the remainder of FY 2017. For FY 2018, they had from January 2017 to Sept 30, 2017 to pass a regular appropriations bill for FY 2018, and they didn't pass one. Because they have yet to pass a FY 2018 regular appropriation. - While there is much about the appropriations process that is political, there is nothing political about the fact that one of Congress' duties to to pass a budget bill that enables efficient operation of the government. To fulfill that duty, Congress must pass a regular appropriations bill, not a litany of CRs.
- To get a budget bill passed, like it or not, the majority party must compromise enough so enough of the minority party's members will vote for it. Devising those compromises is also part of Congress' duty because, like it or not, the U.S. government not a parliamentary one.