Modernizing Federal Budgeting Starts with Preventing Shutdowns

Senator Ron Johnson’s (R-Wisc.) call for Congress to end the possibility of shutdowns (My Plan to End Government Shutdowns Forever, 9/21/25) is timely and wise. A solid coalition agrees.  

Some disagree, however, claiming that deeper structural changes are needed and that preventing shutdowns could worsen the dysfunction. 

It is true that modernizing federal budgeting requires other upgrades. Reasonable statutory and constitutional budget targets with credible automatic enforcement would build consensus on the goals and then legislators could fight about how best to reach them. 

The most important budget practice that Congress could adopt is a comprehensive budget each year: a single bill that includes all spending, revenue, and tax preferences with contributions from all committees and most members.  

Returning to shutdowns, a desire for art-of-the-possible legislating instead of unproductive leverage-seeking led the Kansas legislature to enact automatic continuing appropriations this year. Legislators saw how this practice empowered their counterparts in North Carolina since 2016 and in Wisconsin and Rhode Island for generations. 

Besides, Americans are sick of shutdown brinkmanship. Recent polling found that 76 percent want Congress to stay in session until budgeting is done without disruptions in the meantime. Only six percent oppose that. 61 percent say shutdowns are bad for Congress’s ability to help the country succeed, and only 16 percent view them positively. 

The risk of shutdowns pushes a handful of congressional leaders to hammer out bloated backroom deals against a holiday deadline, months after appropriations bills should have been enacted – in July. The rest of Congress gets no chance to shape or even properly review these funding bills. That’s not how representative democracy should work. 

By contrast, automatic continuing appropriations would take the possibility of shutdowns off the table. New spending bills would have to earn members’ votes. The process would become more inclusive. That’s a good thing. It would limit the drama to Congress and the White House without threatening services the American people rely on and pay for. 

This combination – a comprehensive budget without shutdown posturing and within guardrails – can get Congress to solve many more problems while making the institution a more rewarding place to serve. 

Congress has a golden opportunity to take shutdowns off the table right now. After doing so, it must keep modernizing itself until it becomes the legislature America deserves.