Congressional Organization and Procedures mittees was obviously unworkable. The committee must be relatively small if it is to be effective. Members of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report should be included since it is the only committee of the Congress whose function it is to bring the results of economic analysis to bear on Congressional action. It is the appropriate committee to consider both the long-run effects of the budget and the requirements of short-run budget policy from the standpoint of economic stability. So far the committee's valuable work has been chiefly educational. It has not impinged directly on the legislative process. The committee's own effectiveness and its sense of responsibility and purpose would be increased if it had a part to play in the legislative adoption of budget policy. The effectiveness of the Joint Budget Policy Committee would depend not on its formal status but on the prestige and authority of its membership. Consequently it is essential that the party leadership in both Houses be adequately represented on it and that the party leadership work through the committee on budgetary matters. And the more effective party leadership there is in Congress, the greater the chance of success of this or any other proposal. The Joint Committee should act on an informal, advisory, and consultative basis rather than attempt to give specific instructions to the financial committees. The experience with the Legislative Budget precludes the idea of a predetermined budget ceiling and the inevitable dilemma that goes with it. The Congress is unlikely to be willing to impose an arbitrary limitation on its own consideration of the budget; and if the limita 8 If party-policy committees on the lines of the Heller proposal were established, they should seek to strengthen the Joint Committee rather than replace it. The Joint Committee seems to me to be a more appropriate body to formulate fiscal policy than a majority-policy committee consisting of standing committee chairmien. Congressional and Executive Procedres tion is not arbitrary, it is unlikely to be effective. The notion. of a preliminary budget figure that is both firm and adjustable seems to be too refined to be made the subject of legislation. Therefore, I suggest a resolution that comes toward the end of the Congressional budget process rather than at the beginning. The main business of the Joint Committee would be to introduce fiscal policy-consideration of the economic impact of the budget-into Congressional procedures. While progress along these lines has been made in the Executive Branch, Congressional procedures are still dominated by inadequate rules of thumb, particularly the annually balanced budget rule, which are honored more by their breach than their observance and which, if followed rigidly, could have economic repercussions that no one desires. There is professional agreement that deficits or surpluses are appropriate under varying economic conditions. But with present attitudes failure to reduce taxes in the event of a surplus or to reduce expenditures in the event of a deficit is politically inexpedient. There is even less discussion in the Congress of the longer-run implications of the budget. The pressures to take a two- or a four-year point of view are so great that it is particularly important that machinery should exist to emphasize the importance of longer-range considerations.10 The Joint Committee should not confine itself to general statements of policy, however enlightening. It should attempt to harmonize the work of the revenue committees and the appropriations committees. Changes in taxation should be related to changes in expenditures and their probable effect on the economic situation. The Ways and Means Cf. Galloway, op. cit., p. 22. He confines his proposed Joint Fiscal Committee to an advisory role, presumably for the same reasons. 10 See Chapter XVIII for a discussion of the economic impact of the budget that should be taken into account in framing fiscal policy. 92-496 O-73-26 Congressional Organization and Procedures Committee should prepare its tax plans with full information concerning the appropriations side of the budget, and the appropriations committees should similarly be influenced by tax possibilities. While premature appropriations ceilings or revenue targets should be avoided, a coherent fiscal policy should emerge during the appropriations process. The extent to which a statement of fiscal policy could be incorporated in a concurrent resolution would remain to be seen. The objective, however, should be for the Congress to go on record with respect to its budgetary policy as a whole and to show that the expenditure and revenue measures enacted or proposed had resulted from consideration of fiscal policy needs rather than from uncoordinated committee decisions. The principal role of the Joint Committee would be coordinative and consultative. But its work would naturally become more pointed and decisive if the committee were willing to incorporate its findings and decisions in a resolution. Such a resolution, moreover, would raise the level of political debate on the budget. The expression of majority and minority views in the preparation and reporting of the resolution would tend to center debate on real issues rather than on the superstitions and phantoms that so often becloud budgetary discussion. 5 Proposals for Budget Control Reform WHEN CONGRESS REVIEWED and voted on the proposed budget expenditures submitted by President Kennedy for fiscal year 1963 (preliminary actual, $92.6 billion), its procedures were essentially the same as those employed for fiscal 1922, when the new national budget system became effective and expenditures were $3.3 billion. Both in and out of government there has been increasing criticism of the methods and organization of congressional budgetary control and recognition that they must be overhauled if Congress is to cope effectively with the vast financial affairs of the present-day government. In the Executive branch, budget administration has undergone-continuous revision and improvement over the years, but, so far, the fiscal procedures of Congress have resisted major change, although numerous proposals for revising them continue to be introduced in every session. Much of the criticism of the present budget system is roused by the annual deficits that have become the rule rather than the exception and by the consequent continuing increase of the national debt, despite the rising prices and high level of business activity prevailing since the end of World War II. The pressures for increased federal expenditures appear to have become stronger than the demand for economy. Like many other legislative bodies, Congress has found it easier to vote new programs than to raise the taxes to pay for them. While it is no longer considered necessary or desirable to balance the budget annually, it is generally accepted today that the budget |