Biden should force an end to the House budget brinksmanship — now 

One of Congress’s most important responsibilities is to pass a federal budget before the beginning of each October, when the government’s new fiscal year begins. But Congress — at least, in recent years — usually fumbles the ball.  

This year, partisans in the House have paid more attention to serving Donald Trump’s election campaign than the well-being of families, the economy and the nation’s creditworthiness. Now, with the danger of a government shutdown three weeks away, House Republicans are in disarray — and still have not elected a Speaker.    

It’s time for the president to intervene. 

Congress has passed budgets on time only four times in the last 46 years — not once since 1997. Instead, it has either let the government shut down or passed continuing resolutions, which are essentially temporary permission for the government to keep operating with the previous year’s budget and without any new programs. At the end of 2018, the government ceased normal operations for 34 days. 

Congress also needs to honor other deadlines in the budget process. Under the current system, established in 1974, it is supposed to pass a resolution by April 15 to guide spending for the coming fiscal year. Congress has missed that deadline in 30 of the last 49 years. 

Lawmakers are supposed to approve 12 separate spending bills, but they have never approved more than five on time. Yet all the folderol involves less than a third of federal spending because statutes determine the budgets for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Another 10.4 percent of spending goes to pay interest on the national debt. 

More times than not, the process results in brinksmanship, showboating, confusion and the inability of the rest of government to function smoothly. Leaders often bundle the 12 appropriations bills into one large omnibus measure that few members fully understand. For example, the fiscal 2023 budget approved just before another shutdown deadline consisted of 4,155 pages. The current continuing resolution, which expires Nov. 17, was approved just three hours before the government would have stopped normal operations. 

The process has broken down under both political parties, but this year, the Republican majority in the House wasted time on hearings to defame President Biden and his family and undermine public trust in the Department of Justice in retaliation for indicting Trump on multiple alleged felonies. In addition, a dozen bomb-throwing Republicans on the far right held up the budget to extort deep cuts in discretionary spending. Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) Speakership became one of the casualties. 

Now the entire Congress is in limbo because the GOP can’t pick a Speaker. Presidents have the power under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, to call Congress into special session when necessary. That’s what Joe Biden should do now. He should pressure the House of Representatives to keep working through its scheduled recess between Oct. 27 and Nov. 9, until it installs a Speaker and passes the fiscal 24 budget. The Senate already plans to be in session during that period. 

Biden should point out how the House is threatening America’s fiscal credibility by wasting time on partisan grandstanding to benefit Trump’s election campaign. 

He could propose long-term fixes later. Some mentioned in the past would switch to two-year budgets, create automatic continuing resolutions, require the majority party to share the budget resolution well before voting begins, establish deadlines for amendments so lawmakers and staff have time to study them, and do a better job coordinating budgets for government programs that come under the jurisdiction of multiple committees. 

The GOP’s disarray should not be allowed to cause financial disarray for millions of federal workers who would go unpaid, military families and low-income households that would lose essential services, a slowdown in the economy, the disruption in air travel, and so on. 

Shutdowns can damage America’s credit rating. A Moody’s analyst called the ongoing possibility of a shutdown “further evidence of how political polarization in Washington is weakening fiscal policymaking at a time of rising pressures on U.S. government debt” because of high interest rates. 

This is no way to run a business or a government. America’s chief executive should make an issue of it and insist that Congress not take another break until it does its job. 

William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and contributor to the just-published book, “Democracy in a Hotter Time.” He has served in several state and federal government roles, including executive assistant to the attorney general of Wisconsin. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House.