Once again, Congress is far behind the eight ball when it comes to funding the government and is now headed for another end of year budget crisis. Why? It’s now more than two months after the end of the fiscal year and Congress hasn’t passed a single spending bill. Instead, lawmakers have relied on two stopgap bills just to keep the lights on and they are unlikely to finish the job before the current one expires on Dec. 20. Fiscally reckless lawmakers of both parties will argue that they have only two options to deal with this crisis: A costly and unnecessary federal shutdown or a gargantuan, irresponsible spending bill that spends too much and forces bad policy choices unrelated to spending. But lawmakers are wrong to claim that we have only two options. There is a tool, as detailed in AFP’s latest policy report, that could prevent this costly crisis budgeting: An automatic continuing resolution, which funds agencies automatically when appropriations bills aren’t passed. An automatic continuing resolution is a better option Congress has resorted to budgeting by crisis whenever it is time to budget. In the 45 years since the enactment of the Budget Act, Congress has managed to pass all necessary spending bills to keep the … Continue reading Congress, stop budgeting by crisis