Here and i am here and get used to it. applause explorer nations passed on American History to be every weekend on seaspan three. A panel looking at ways to improve the budget process and before the House Committee on the committee of congress. The committee will come to order and declare a recess on the committee at any time and this hearing is entitled recommendations for improving the budget and the process i will look at the work of the joint elected committee on the process reform. I now recognize myself for five minutes and the 104th which convened in 1995 was the last two pass all the bills as part of the Fiscal School year and i was almost 25 years ago and motels members have not seen a process that works the way its supposed to where they are there on time and the committee on appropriation process which i served along my colleague who was established by the bipartisan act of 2018 and was charged with making recommendations to significantly reform the budget process. A very active establishing committee was that the process wasnt working at all to be. Local one such a nine says that no money shall be gone from the treasury and the appropriations made by law and the color of the purse within the constitutional powers. Its a constitutionally mandated shut down an executive power. When Congress Fails to pass it builds on time. It seized power to the executive branch. They passed 117 resolutions since the beginning of the fiscal year in 1998 and last Year Congress passed nine see ours and this year the pass three but. Thats a lot of time spent whiting decisions but see how they would have to focus on other legislative duties and a bills or passed on time and how to allocate several programs is tough but it still does its job. The people deserve a functioning government and its congress is most important job. The joint committee did not pass a bill produced a lot of important work and provides a framework that it is today. The committee engaged in serious discussions about what it would take to fix the budget appropriations process and many of the ideas that came out of those discussions and thats our intent today. And i will talk about the problems with the process and the agreement that both parties and chambers can find some coming around and were working on the work of the joint committee and we wont limit ourselves to that committee and im looking forward to hearing the ideas for more Witnesses Today and im grateful to the appropriations chair when the former budget chair who tag team to lead that committee and i appreciate your leadership and with that all now invite my vice chair for some remarks. Mister chairman and i think Ranking Member womack for joining us today and its a great time to speak with you today. I met the committee and to fix our current funding process and i hope today that you know that this hearing is proof that it was not for not and it will work with you we continue they work from last year. This committee will and im glad youre here and i know that you all want to solve this and we can gather some ideas on how to tackle this complex issue. When it comes to the current funding process in congress i think we all know we can do better. The American People are constituents expects us to do better and or charged with the support but the taxpayer dollars and we move forward mister chairman and each chamber in this administration is the brick wall of this process and each time over the last couple of years and are Witnesses Today its illustrated we. Its been more than 20 years that the bills were passed by one the process work and for house members of 60 so we have a lot of appropriators and with myself as well and i know this problem his pushed onto each of us. And at the panel here the probe raiders are here as well and its been tough with other negotiations that are chewed up by the process thats tough to see discarded by the continuing resolution and tough to go after this year after year. We all have different backgrounds and different perspectives and philosophies and with a lot in common is uber trapped in his broken funding together and i think that todays hearing and bipartisan spirit will get to pick up on the efforts that we let us with last year and will get a chance to fix this and get out of this broken cycle rain so thank you mister chairman i look forward to hearing. Thank you hear the testimony of five witnesses on our first panel we have, the nita lowey chair of the House Committee and the representative steve womack and the member of the House Committee a budget. Both service cochairs in the committee for the appropriations project and Great Respect and admiration for both of your leadership so thank you for that. Particularly despite this being a very busy week representative lowey and womack are giving us or precious time. You are now recognized for five minutes. Will kill moore, i share the member of the committee and i am pleased to join you this morning to frankly speak with you and a room that is very familiar and have some familiar faces and to be here alongside Ranking Member womack. Serving me as the joints elected committee and the process of reform and the 115 concerns over the process of the Senate Consideration prevented that committee from reporting about recommendations and House Democrats have used the first nine months of a new majority to make important improvements to the budget and appropriations process. I am very pleased to say that one of the most important changes that i advocated for and the joint Selection Committee was raising an workable budget caps and received the bipartisan basis in july. Because of Speaker Pelosi strong leadership, the bipartisan budget act allows us to invest for the people and increased funding of education health, care and human services. In addition, the bipartisan budget act has the ceiling of removing the source of uncertainty with family, businesses and communities across the country. However, as i recommend the select committee process. I would prefer to go further and completely repeal that seal. It serves no useful purpose other than to create opportunities and threatens our nations credit and the health of our economy. In addition to the bipartisan budget act, we also made important changes to house rules. With our democratic majority took office in january, we adopted a meaningful pay as you go ruled that shuts the door on reckless policies like the gop tax can. As chairwoman of the committee, i have restored the long serving Standard Practice of adopting jail to be allegations before reporting appropriation bills an important step for transparency. To build on these successes and charting a more affective responsible cause for the American People there are two key legislative changes that i propose making. When i let the joint select committee that would help approve the budget and appropriations process. Moving from an annual to a live resolution. Requiring the resolution in the first year of each congress. Providing a appropriations allocation for both the first and second years of the biennial. Providing a mechanism to facilitate action on appropriations even if the budget raja lieu shun is not adopted. Ideally, by allowing for a concurrent resolution and dealing with three oh to a allocations only. Although, these are outside the scope of this committee, it is worth noting that i also have to changes for senate rules and a fiscal responsibility and both chambers. Restoring the combat role, senate rule with and prevented reconciliation legislation for increasing the deficit and the first years and a 60 vote point of order in the senate against reconciliation at a budget resolution and call for a net deficit increase. In addition, i support technical improvements to better handle kept judgment items. Change the process of the calculating baseline projections that emergency spending and expediting administrations provision a full year, predatory data for the cpp all. Even with these changes the, most important element of the successful buzz it and process of a political will. Im proud that our democratic majority has shown the political will and taken our responsibilities seriously. That is why our chamber is far ahead of the senate and in processing appropriation bills this year. Finally, i would like to discuss the elephant in the room and congressional plea directed spending. The select committee and modernization of strengthening this institution. Nothing could strengthen the Article One Branch of government more than restoring the congressionally directed spending. It is imperative that congress exercises its constitutional responsibility and determining how and where taxpayer dollars are appropriating our spend. The congressionally directed spending has led to diminished company in the house and transferred are authority to the executive branch. Returning to a strong set of rules and to ensure transparency and prevent to be used of a measurable benefit of this house and the American People and i hope that we can do so in the months ahead. Thank you for inviting me to testify and best of luck with the select committee. Thank you madam chair and thank you for your leadership. Mr. You womack are now recognized for farm five minutes. Thank you chairman derek kilmer and the rest of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today and ill show you some perspective on the joint committee and the process and there will be a cochair with the leader of the House Committee and i look forward to a productive discussion roy and they have been voiced frustration about the budget process and the current process in the 1970s and has been updated for a very minor revisions and it does not align with the dynamics however. Last year its like the select committee with legislation to reform the process of the equal number of republicans of the voting threshold and the super majority was five republicans and five democrats and ten out of 16 members. But the requirement of this party and to structure guaranteed in the consensus driven product. We ultimately produced a bipartisan package of reforms and some highlights of the bill are, moving to a budget of maintaining annual appropriations and reconciliation. Ensuring real estate headlines from congress to complete its budget and appropriations work. Requiring a Budget Committee hearing on the fiscal sea of the region. Why other we fail, we obtained bipartisan support for a number of proposals and the final vote was required and the super majority threshold. Some members voted no, some voted present. A number of those members had support for the underline bill but the presence of the unrelated disagreement among the senate leadership. However, the final proposal once developed was input from all members and cochair agreed to base text and elements were out in and markup in the super majority vote and some had a unanimous vote. Bipartisan ideas were found and could continue to be proportion but members. The budget and appropriation process was also pleasantly surprised that republicans and democrats in the house and senate, came into the deliberation to talk about the. Debt to be clear, our group did not try to identify policies to reduce the deficit by a certain amount. What we did discuss extensively was the fact that congress does not use its existing procedures to reduce the debt. We could use regular order or reconciliation and we simply dont. Members expressed interest and a third route and perhaps that is bipartisan. With the debt to gdp and target metric, senator Sheldon Whitehouse in particular was a leader in this area. So what should this committee do now . Since its football season, id encourage you to first get some first downs. Rather than try to for throw a hail mary likely do so often. The joint select committee represents a bipartisan and a step forward for incremental reform. Second, we should continue to focus on budget process and not budget outcomes. Outcomes are specific levels of fundings with proposals to reduce the deficit by a certain amount. Process is how congress determines how much to spend or how to determine what policies to act in this deficit. Id like to see us modernize a procedure that will hopefully have congress for success in the future and who happens to have a majority at any given time. My goal is to get something and acted and improves our process. To work both republicans and democrats in the house and senate and try to do so to acknowledge the importance of the senate with this puzzle and vein i congratulate for releasing a series of budget and reform ideas that are in the summer. Before i conclude, i should just anecdotally say this. The better poster child for the fall the congress of the United States of america than where we are happening to be today on funding with the government in the beginning of the fiscal year and is less in two weeks away. I challenge this committee and all willing participants of the congress to find solutions to put congress back on the track of arguably the most important work and i yield back. Thank you. I want to express my gratitude to both and you to the busiest people in these marvel buildings and the fact that you are giving us our time we are gray very grateful for so thank you. With that we will now move on to our second panel them our first witness says matthew owens, he is the second of Vice President of the universities. We provide strategic leadership of the associations priorities. Mr. Owens served in a Leadership Council and convergence a nonprofit means of individuals organizations but with to build trust with solutions and form issues. And his capacity, is served on the budget process project to address the often dysfunctional process. The project participants reached on five proposals and to prove the process that congress uses in the annual budget. William hogg wind is a senior Vice President at the Bipartisan Policy Center and it is compassesy they manage the Fiscal Health and Economic Policy and mr. Hogan serve 33 years for 25 years of the u. S. Senate staff. And thousand three to 2007, he served at the director of procreation with the senate below already leader and evaluating the fiscal impact and the budget policy and from 1982 the 2003, and a staff member and directed of the Senate Committee according to the u. S. Senate chairman and Ranking Member also participated in the budget in the 1995 budget deficit act and 1990s, the reconciliation act and historically in 1997 the balanced budget agreement. Megan lynch is part of the finance division and research service. Her work focuses on the budget process and joined see our as into our than seven as the cra has worked in maryland and the marilyn general assembly. Reminded that your oral testimony is limited to five minutes and without ejectments we may be part of the record mr. Owens you are now recognized for five minutes of the oral presentation. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in front of this panel. I encouraged the work and congress to improve the budget process and ive seen the consequences with my research over the past few decades. Student Financial Decisions are held up for important medical researches and they have made more complex and time consuming because they are not in the budget in a political manner to. This is highly inefficient and its time in institutional we sources that would otherwise be used for research and service missions. I chose to participate in the emergence building budget project for this reason. And the spirit of what researchers and universities have said, we seem to address these difficult problems facing our nation. The same reasons my Employer Association of the university supports the levels discussed. Understanding that you have the testimony i will hire the convergence of the project in the five consensus proposal we developed. The first proposal is the budget action plan. It synchronize is the budget process with the governing cycles and calls on each new congress of up to twoyear budget and the law by the president. The budget action plan as three required elements and one provision. First, Discretionary Spending up to two years. Second, it lifts the deadline for many shortfall in the legislation and third it authorizes a look at the impact of the impact of the budget of the long term fiscal outlook. Additionally, it allows congress the option to reconciliation noble per fiscal year. Her second proposal requires to have a fiscal state of the nation report. It would be an issue during the president ial election cycle and logging information about the finances and not limited to the debt, deficits, interest payments, revenues and spending and a breakdown of all Revenue Sources and any estimated shortfalls of long term spending programs. This report would be widely distributed and provide information in friendly ways to have washington insiders beyond have the budget. It would be a full picture of the finance and elevate discussions about the budget and make more informed choices. The third proposal seems to reinforce the long term effects and every four years the geo reviews the portfolios that are both long term they will review programs and National Security and our fourth proposal is to strengthen the Budget Committee. We agree that the stats needs to be restored to lead the process. We propose that the chair and Ranking Members of key fiscal and authorize committee, serve on the verge and serve on the Budget Committee. It would h