ARLINGTON, VA—Congress has the constitutional power of the purse — but too often, it treats budgeting like an afterthought. In a new op-ed published by Washington Examiner, Rep. Jeff Hurd who represents Colorado’s 3rd congressional district and cosponsored the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2026 and Will Burger, Senior Federal Affairs Liaison at Americans for Prosperity, warn that decades of delay tactics, crisis legislating, and autopilot spending have hollowed out one of Congress’s most fundamental responsibilities. They lay out why the status quo is failing — and how the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2026 would force lawmakers to confront real trade-offs, restore transparency, and bring accountability back to the budget process.
The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. It is one of the legislature’s central responsibilities and one of the most important checks on the executive branch. Yet in modern Washington, Congress increasingly treats budgeting as an inconvenience rather than a duty.
That abdication is not a mystery. It reflects incentives that reward delay, diffuse accountability, and replace deliberate governance with crisis management.
Congress recently passed most of the annual spending bills funding the federal government for the remainder of fiscal 2026. That progress deserves recognition. But it is noteworthy precisely because it has become so rare. Most years, Congress fails to complete its basic budgeting work on time, relying instead on massive omnibus legislation or short-term extensions negotiated under the threat of shutdown.
This was not always the case. A century ago, Congress exercised close control over federal spending, debating individual programs and making explicit trade-offs. Over time, that discipline eroded. After World War II, large entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare expanded alongside a more complex tax system. These programs were placed on autopilot, exempt from annual review, while discretionary spending continued to require regular approval.
In 1974, Congress tried to restore order by creating the Congressional Budget Office, establishing budget committees and setting a clear budget timeline. The system worked for a while. But it failed to keep pace with political reality.
Mandatory spending continued to grow, while reforming popular programs became politically risky. Rather than confront those trade-offs openly, Congress learned to avoid them. Decisions were delayed, bundled, or pushed into last-minute omnibus bills negotiated behind closed doors.
This evolution did not occur because Congress lacks the capacity to budget. It occurred because dysfunction became easier than accountability.
Omnibus bills shield individual lawmakers from responsibility. Crisis legislating allows difficult choices to be blamed on circumstance rather than judgment. Emergency procedures designed for rare contingencies have become routine shortcuts. Over time, Congress has trained itself to prefer disorder because disorder spreads blame.
The result is a budget process that provides neither meaningful oversight nor long-term strategy. Committees are sidelined. Deadlines are missed. Spending decisions are made in compressed timeframes with limited transparency. Meanwhile, most federal spending continues to grow automatically, insulated from regular scrutiny.
No private institution would operate this way. No responsible board of directors would approve expenses without periodic review. Yet Congress has normalized a system in which the largest share of the budget runs on autopilot while the smallest share absorbs most of the attention.
That is why the proposed Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2026 matters.
The bill, cosponsored with congressman Blake Moore from Utah, would require Congress to complete a real, comprehensive budget each year. It would force committees to participate fully by submitting detailed spending and revenue proposals for the programs they oversee, including major mandatory programs currently shielded from review. It would strengthen the budget resolution by making it enforceable rather than symbolic, reduce reliance on procedural shortcuts, and require Congress to debate spending and policy together instead of hiding priorities in rushed deals.
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Congressman Jeff Hurd represents Colorado’s 3rd congressional district and cosponsored the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2026. Will Burger is the Senior Federal Affairs Liaison at Americans for Prosperity.
Read the entire article here
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