Policy Corner

House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington made a request for information on how Congress can improve the fiscal state of the nation by preventing waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending. The following is my submission (PDF). Congress should make waste, fraud, and abuse compete with everything else. Members will be able to – and will want to – root out nonsense while protecting useful activities. Members of Congress and their advisors are creative. They can figure out better ways to prevent, deter, and prosecute misuse of taxpayer funds. How tragic, then, that members have limited legislative opportunities to spread their wings. This response to the request for information focuses on upgrades to congressional budgeting that will improve incentives and help Congress control not only improper payments and fraud, but also low-value and extra-constitutional spending of all kinds. Members of Congress have introduced legislation to achieve most of these upgrades. A comprehensive congressional budget makes programs compete Congress doing a real budget every year is a simple but powerful idea. The Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act[1] shows the way from today’s incomplete, partial, fragile budgeting to a holistic, bottom-up, productive, and robust annual budget act. Truly budgeting would give members the means […]

This anniversary, let us give people liberty to work and to work and to build the lives they dream of.

For H.R. 7295 in the 119th Congress. 118th Congress version here. Most members of Congress want to budget responsibly: put funds to best uses, respond to emergencies, and otherwise control borrowing. The ideal Congress: They want to solve problems for the American people. They want to get along with their colleagues and work together on shared priorities. They believe in the Constitution, freedom, consent of the governed, prosperity, equality under the law, and other principles of human flourishing. Congress curbed: Unfortunately, members have few legislative paths to advance their ideas. Anything significant requires Herculean efforts. Meanwhile, taxpayer funds are wasted on low priorities, and alarming amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse occur. Americans harmed: A hobbled Congress hurts all Americans: higher prices and interest rates, less opportunity, more stress, and fewer ways to pursue the American dream. Growing risks threaten greater hardships. Without a course correction, a federal debt crisis will inflict tremendous economic, security, and political carnage. Fortunately, building up Congress to be what we need is entirely possible. Sound Budgeting is Central to an Effective Congress. Fragile: Today, budgeting is unproductive for the time it consumes. Each year, Congress tries to approve twelve separate appropriations bills covering one-fourth […]

Faith Burns, Energy Policy Fellow at Americans for Prosperity, joins to discuss ongoing Iran conflict, jump in oil prices, and energy stability. Discussion of permitting reforms, affordability plans, and how to lower energy prices in the US.

This post is part of a series on better budgeting. Return to the landing page to see the rest of the series here. Congressional committees should be preparing to release their legislative hopes for the year right now, at least in broad strokes. This is the first congressional step in the annual budget process after Congress gets the president’s budget request and the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline update. In an effective congressional budget process, the Budget Committees would now be getting information about committees’ plans to manage spending and revenue policies. By consulting with committees, leaders, other members, and other stakeholders, the Budget Committees can optimize for the whole through the concurrent resolution on the budget. The budget resolution should be a binding framework to guide legislation for the rest of the year. What are committee “views and estimates?” Views & estimates outline committees’ budget-related plans. They are letters from the chair of each committee that has spending or revenue authority. They go to the Budget Committee, usually in February or March, to help the Budget Committee draft a budget resolution that sets guardrails and facilitates legislative actions. Section 301(d) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 [2 U.S.C. 632(d)] […]

Faith Burns joins Joe Patterson on ‘The Alan Nathan Show’ to discuss American energy abundance and the government red tape that stands in the way.

A secure border makes immigration better for everyone. AFP’s ‘Pillar 1: Secure Border and Ports’ provided a framework for securing the border that Congress has begun to adapt.

If the goal is more access and lower costs, the solution is straightforward: repeal CON laws and stop treating the provision of health care like a privilege that must be rationed.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA) allows intelligence agencies to collect the communications of targeted non-U.S. persons (individuals who are not American citizens and who are reasonably believed to be currently outside of the United States).

Throughout American history, opportunity, dignity, property rights, and homeownership have become key components of achieving the American Dream. Yet, over the past century, excessive government regulations have reduced property rights and made the American Dream harder to fulfill.