In 2020 when the pandemic was beating up every aspect of our society the Congress concocted a 5,593-page-Bill monstrosity for Covid-19 relief, The Cares Act. Of course, it passed; nearly everyone could use a little relief from Covid and the taxpayers were stuck with the Bill, all $1.8 trillion dollars. But here is the pathetic part; under the guise of helping Americans through the pandemic, members of Congress took the opportunity to pork-up the Bill with dozens, if not hundreds, of earmarked funding directives that had absolutely nothing to do with Covid or Covid relief. Here is a sampling:
$10 million for “gender programs” in Pakistan,
$300 million for fisheries,
$100 million for NASA,
$300 million to Endowment for the Arts,
$300 million to Endowment for the Humanities,
$300 million to Public Broadcasting,
$500 million for Museums and Libraries,
$720 million to Social Security Administration,
$315 million to the State Department,
$90 million to the Peace Corp,
$492 million to National Railroad Passenger Corp,
$526 million grant to Amtrak.
$4.7 Billion in foreign aid to nine countries.
The takeaway from this example is that under different circumstances, each of these expenditures could have/should have seen the light of day in one or more congressional committees where expert witnesses would have testified to the pros and cons of passing the funding.
The second takeaway is that the Covid Relief Act was not a one-off occurrence. Producing multi-thousand-page Bills has become the norm. No one who votes for them has actually read them and therefore do not know what they are voting for or against. Should we be borrowing money for earmarks that have never been exposed to public scrutiny? If viewed separately by the American taxpayers, would they all pass the smell test? Absolutely not.
For years politicians have been emphasizing the need for infrastructure spending. So, in 2021 Congress finally passed, in a bipartisan vote, a $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Bill which, by the way, is also funding universal pre-K, child care, enhanced child tax credit, earned income tax credit, Affordable Care Act subsidies, Medicaid expansion, medical hearing benefits, affordable housing, Pell grants, children’s nutrition, immigration, state and local tax deductions, etc. etc. etc. Only about 25% of the expenditures actually exist for real infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports. What happened to the remaining $900 Billion?
We just finished a fiscal year with $1.8 trillion in deficit spending, up from $1.7 trillion in 2023.
Those opening paragraphs are just attention getters. Now to reality. It has become obvious in the first week after the election that President-elect Trump is serious about cutting needless spending. My all-time favorite, “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.”
In a great attention-getting move President Trump has selected a couple of very smart patriots, who have themselves built huge, successful, lean, efficient organizations, to downsize government and cut needless expenditures of many Billions of dollars; namely Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. I am at this point a little unsure if they are just going to concentrate on the Executive Branch or will they also look into the Congress.
This Musk/Ramaswamy endeavor is a great start for the following reasons.
A mammoth, sprawling, uncontrollable, federal government currently numbering about 4.3 million plus hundreds of thousands of contract employees was never the vision or intent of the Founding Fathers. Organizations have a propensity to grow to a point of diminishing returns; cease to be efficient, effective, and/or no longer perform the functions for which they were created. At that point, a large organization will tend to look inward and become self-perpetuating rather than value-added for the greater good.
Their downsizing and reorientation of the Executive Branch will undoubtedly cut hundreds of Billion in unnecessary spending. But there is a second arena that when turned inside-out and looked at through a microscope can potentially save additional hundreds of Billions of dollars annually. That is the Congress, coming up next.
UP-FRONT WORK
First President Trump should do a couple things. One is to call in the Congressional leaders and tell them he has no intention of signing into law any passed Bill that is thousands of pages long. I will not sign Bills that you have passed but not yet read. Additionally, I will not sign a Bill in which all of the expenditures have not been analyzed in relevant Congressional Committees and voted out of committee before going to the Floor for a vote.”
This would be the beginning of a complete overhaul of the concept of operations for the Congress.
Additionally, the entire project of reorientation, reorganization and spending cutting in the Executive and Legislative Branches should be the overall purview of Vice President Vance. He should be the Spending-Cut Czar as his immediate and number one priority project as Vice President for at least the first year. This would be an important delegation by the President. It would be the best possible training ground for the VP. It would set him up for a successful run for the presidency in 2028. Finally, as effective as the Musk/Ramaswamy team might be, the downside is that they are not in the chain of command. A reluctant Department leader could nod his/her head yes every day and then just blow them off and continue with business as usual. The VP is in their chain of command and can make sure those under review clearly understand who is in charge.
What follows is a suggested concept of operations for the Congress which currently is a lethargic, undisciplined, ill-guided failure as an operating organization that routinely wastes hundreds of Billions of taxpayer dollars every year thereby creating annual deficit spending and additions to the unsustainable national debt which is currently approaching $36 trillion.
THE NEW CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR CONGRESS
Begin by institutionalizing a set of seven new operational standards and then establish a small oversight organization that will make sure the standards are in place and utilized every day in every way. An organization without standards is a failed organization.
THE CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDRDS AUTHORITY, CLSA
This small agency will be formed under the Inspector General (free from Congressional influence) inside the General Services Administration (an independent government organization). The CLSA’s sole purpose will be to enforce these seven standards and to administer the life-cycle of a piece of legislation. The CLSA will NOT be in charge of the Congress. They will NOT make policy. But they will become the administrators of the day-to-day process of creating new legislation and a new budget. The Congress has proven that it is incapable of successfully and efficiently administrating themselves. The CLSA can become something akin to the very valuable oversight we see from the Congressional Budget Office whose work is objective, impartial and nonpartisan.
Under the CLSA every Bill will first appear on a Congressional web site operated solely by the CLSA that is totally dedicated to enforcing the standards for every Bill. Every member of Congress will receive an alert each time a new Bill is proposed and posted on a congressional new-legislation website.
This website will be managed solely by the CLSA; The sponsors of a Bill may contact the CLSA at any time to update schedules, to notify members of committee hearings, to make changes to the legislation, etc. But the CLSA employees are the only ones who can access the site to add, delete or change any piece of information.
The CLSA does not have the authority to recommend changes, additions or deletions to the intent of the legislation. Their function is to determine if the proposed legislation meets certain established standards, with particular emphasis on Standard Number Three, Applicability.
STANDARD NUMBER ONE, OUTLAW “EARMARKING”
An earmark is a provision inserted into a discretionary spending Billthat directs funds to a specific recipient while circumventing the merit-based or competitive funds allocation process. Most earmarks are attached to a “must-pass” Bill so that it is protected from non-passage or presidential veto. My definition of an earmark is an idea that would not have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting passed if, standing alone, it was exposed to the light of day.
STANDARD NUMBER TWO, SUNSET LEGISLATION
This is a measure, within a statute or regulation, that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific future date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law. Most laws do not have sunset clauses and therefore remain in force indefinitely. Keep in mind that most laws cause some new Executive Department organization to be created. Our government is full of agencies, divisions and branches that require annual funding, while having outlived their requirement to exit.
STANDARD NUMBER THREE, APPLICABILITY
In the 2020, a 5593-page Covid-19 relief Bill there were scores of organizations funded from that Bill that had absolutely zero association with the Covid-19 outbreak or relief thereof.
Hereafter all of the provisions of a particular Bill must clearly identify with the subject, purpose and intent of the Bill which could save hundreds of Billions of needless expenditures per year. It will prevent publishing Bills that are too lengthy to read; e.g., not a single Representative or Senator actually read the 5593-page Covid-19 relief Bill before they voted on it.
STANDARD NUMBER FOUR, STAND-ALONE
Every Bill will be a single-issue piece of legislation. Period.
STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS
There are two different situations to consider. One is the federal budget process and the other is all Bills other than those in the budget process.
The non-budget Bills will get processed in one continuous timeframe not to exceed 90-days per Bill. The CLSA will grade the scheduling of all activities to insure it is ready to be voted on within the 90-day timeframe. The exception to this is, at any time the Bill’s sponsor or committee may pull it from consideration. (We will get to the federal budget process in a few minutes.)
STANDARD NUMBER SIX, LEADERS CANNOT HIDE A PENDING BILL
The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate too often practice sitting on Bills, not allowing them to be voted on for protracted periods of time. This will not be allowed. Every Bill will be voted on or before the end of its 90-day window.
STANDARD NUMBER SEVEN, STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT
Every piece of legislation will be formatted with four specific sections and pages as follows:
SECTION ONE OF THE CLSA STANDARD FORMAT IS ALL ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY AND WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:
CONGREESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY
Page 1, Administrative data
Current as of: ____ (date ____(All of the below data will be filled in as it becomes available from Congress. For each new or changed data point, this “current as of” date will also be updated.)
Title of the legislation: ___ ($10 million for “gender programs” in Pakistan)_________
Date which starts the 90-day calendar: (the date the CLSA initially uploads it onto the website and notifies all legislators that it is there for them to act on)
Not-later-than-date to be presented, debated and voted on the floor of the House of Representatives or Senate___(90 days after the above “start” date)_____
The member of Congress who is the principal sponsor: ______________________
co-sponsors: _______________________
_______________________
_______________________
Author of the proposed Bill: ______________ (a member of Congress, the White House, a Congressional committee staff, Executive Branch Department, Non-governmental organization, lobbyist, private citizen, etc.)
Sunset legislation date: ___(a date that must be included inside the Bill)_______
Schedule for committee hearings: ___(determined by congressional leaders)____
____(Foreign Affairs Committee)______
____(___etc.______Committee)______
COMMENTS ON DRAFTING OF LEGISLATION:
Lobbyists. There are nearly 12,000 registered lobbyists in the U.S. They work for businesses, professional associations, cities, states, non-profit organizations, etc. They get paid to make things happen in government and mostly that is in the form of special interest legislation. Lobbyist are a prime source of today’s legislation and earmarks. It is not a completely negative concept but the downside is that they can too frequently get politicians to earmark appropriations that are self-serving and not in the best interest of the general public.
Congressional committee staffers. Staffers write much of the legislation today and therein lies a big problem. Because many issues rarely fit nicely inside the domain of a single committee, there will ultimately be multiple committee staffers, working on behalf of their politicians and bringing their individual thoughts and prejudices to the effort. Too often, having begun in good faith to build a thoroughbred race horse, they end up with a herd of camels. Under today’s system that “camel” ends up earmarked to some “must pass” Bill and eventually in some Executive Branch, department or agency for execution. By then, the original intent for the Bill may be so convoluted that it is potentially a complete waste of time, energy, money and is one of the causes of the gross inefficiency of government.
The Executive Branch of government, to include the president, should author a larger portion of the Bills. Why? Because they know the who, what, when, where, why and how details of their proposals that should not be delegated to lobbyists or congressional staffers. Why not let the experts, those who will be responsible for execution, do the up-front piece? For example, if the Department of Homeland Security needs $400 million for border security, they should write the proposed Bill and seek out some member(s) of Congress to sponsor it.
SECTION 2 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:
CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY
Page 2, Legislation Intent
Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____
(CLSA Instructions: This narrative must be limited to one single-spaced page, font 12 and must begin with the words, THE PURPOSE OF THIS LEGISLATION IS TO…….
Intent is one of the least used and most important aspects of any law. Congress and the authors of a Bill should not leave it to the applicable governmental departments to infuse their own intent for what the laws should or should not be about and thereby create unintended consequences.
SECTION 3 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:
CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY
Page 3, Component outline
Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____
(CLSA instructions: provide an outline of the major elements. The format
will be similar to a Table of Contents but with a few sentences explaining each entry.
SECTION 4 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:
CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY
The Entire Bill, (e.g.HR-12 or S-16}
Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____
(The entire Bill should be carefully crafted and consist of a very limited number of pages that can be easily understood by the general public.)
SIX CONCLUSIONS about having Congressional Legislation Standards Authority oversight of day-to-day stand-alone legislation.
One, “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.” After the fact; that’s when we found out about this and dozens more ridiculous “Covid-19 relief” packages. Who knew about them before they became law? None of us. Why? Because the Congress can waste our tax dollars almost at will while hiding behind a wall of anonymity. What happened to accountability? Without standards there is no accountability.
Two, under the above proposed CLSA program, we would have known on day-one who sponsored this insane earmark. We would have known when a committee was going to discuss it. We would have known weeks in advance when it was going to be voted on. We would have known all this because it would have been a stand-alone Bill, not hidden inside a 5593-page unread Bill. Accountability and transparency would have been front and center. The fact is, it would never have made it to the floor for a vote because visibility by the press and by we-the-people would have caused it to go away.
Furthermore, one of the great advantages of a standards-based legislative process is that in all likelihood, the Bill would never have been written because anonymity is non-existent.
Three, journalists will use the CLSA website as a source for up-to-the-minute reporting on pending legislation. Citizens can read it, learn what the legislation is all about, understand the positives and negatives of the intent and weigh in with their elected legislators before, not after, it becomes the law of the land.
Four, after about a year, this simple process will guide all new-legislation activities in the Congress and will be accepted as the new normal. This process has the potential to save hundreds of Billions of dollars per year. It will have the effect of spending our tax dollars first in support of we-the-people.
Five, additionally, and perhaps most importantly, this more disciplined approach to legislation could have the long-term impact of moving toward greater fiscal responsibility building towards a future balanced budget mindset.
Six, successful, admired organizations operate this way every day. It is as simple as one-two-three. One, thoroughly define a single TASK at hand. Two, define the CONDITIONS, in this case stand-alone Bills. Three, set and enforce the operating STANDARDS without exceptions. Task, conditions, standards; this new approach to doing the peoples’ business in Washington is within the art of the possible and it will not cost a dime to adopt and institutionalize operational change. But it will take strong leadership to put it in place and make it happen.
THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS STANDARDS:
As previously stated above in STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS, there are two different situations to consider; the non-budget related Bill with sections 1-4 defined above, and now a look at the federal budget process legislation.
THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS LEGISLATION: To develop and pass a new budget with twelve separate appropriations Bills is supposed to be a standardized eight-month process from early February through the end of the fiscal year on 30 September.
THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH RESPONSIBILITIES: Each October federal agencies begin compiling their budgets for the following fiscal year and submit their proposals to the President via the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB edits, calculates, and coordinates the budget for final review and approval by the President. The President then forwards the approved proposal to the House and Senate, hopefully, by the first Monday in February.
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ACTIONS: The Budget Act of 1974 lays out the required congressional actions, February through September of each year, in order to have a completed, agreed upon and signed budget by 30 September. Upon receipt of the president’s budget, various Committees begin reviewing their respective sections of the budget; the process is spear-headed by the Budget Committee.
BUDGET RESOLUTION: Upon receipt of the President’s Budget, the Budget Resolution document is then worked in the House and Senate. The budget resolution process allows Congress to establish a framework within which the House and Senate will consider budget-related legislation and set revenue and spending levels. The Budget Act set a target date of 15 April for adoption of a budget resolution by both chambers. The CLSA will closely monitor the resolution process looking for violations of the standards on earmarking and applicability.
BUDGET RECONCILIATION
The Budget Act further sets a target date of 15 June for completing action on reconciliation legislation if required in able to complete the resolution. Without resolution between the House and Senate there are no rules, no timelines, no standards and no discipline. All of that leads directly to the chaos and disasters of completing a budget for all twelve separate appropriations Bills by 30 September.
Following budget resolution and reconciliation, April through June, the 90-day CLSA standard window begins for passage of the twelve budget appropriations.
The Budget Act of 1974 lays out the timelines for Congress in the passage of an annual budget by 30 September each year. So, how are they doing?
According to the Pew Research Center, “Congress has passed continuing resolutions to keep government agencies running between budgets in all but four of the last 40 years. The last time Congress completed all Bills on time was in 1996.”
Congress has only adopted a budget resolution prior to the April 15 target date on four occasions since fiscal year 1985, with the most recent being fiscal year 2004.
Because Congress usually doesn’t pass its 12 appropriations Bills on time, it then uses continuing resolutions and omnibus Bills, which cover several appropriations. The consequences are a less effective, more expensive government that wastes taxpayer dollars and burdens current and future generations with massive debt.
The 12th and final appropriations Bill for FY 2024 was finally passed 23 March 2024; six months late.
Before adjourning for the summer recess last August, Congress had passed only one of the 12 appropriations Bills for FY 2025. By the time they all got back to work, they had only 11 days to pass the remaining 11 appropriations. It didn’t happen. September, 2024 the House and Senate approved a stopgap measure to keep the government funded for three months. Therefore, they are currently facing a funding crisis next month in December.
One of the most basic Constitutional tasks for Congress is to pass a fiscal year budget and do it on time. However, Congressional indiscipline continues to place the day-to-day functioning of the federal government in jeopardy and thereby negatively affecting nearly all Americans in some way.
This is unacceptable institutionalized irresponsibility and ineptitude. The system is seriously broken because of the failure of the senior leaders, House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader and Committee Chairpersons.
STANDARDS FOR THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS, FEBRUARY THROUGH SEPTEMBER.
STANDARD NUMBER ONE: Leaders publish detailed plans, well in advance, for action with hard suspense dates for accomplishing all assigned tasks. That includes all Committee chairpersons. If they can’t get their act together, replace them immediately.
STANDARD NUMBER TWO: Leader’s schedule and take frequent IPRs, In-progress reviews. If committee work is behind schedule, the senior leaders will direct night and weekend work to ensure on-time results
STANDARD NUMBER THREE: Runing out of time is not a valid excuse. Work hard, work long, work weekends if necessary but get it done.
STANDARD NUMBER FOUR: Election year schedule. When 435 Representatives and 1/3 of the Senators are home campaigning every other year, that needs to be taken into consideration and not become a valid excuse for not accomplishing any of the budget tasks on time.
the Congressional Legislation Standards Authority needs to come into play again as follows beginning with these website pages:
CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY, CLSA and THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS
The Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader in the Senate and House and Senate Budget Committee chairpersons will be required to prepare and publish a Concept of Operations for the next fiscal year budget preparation process published on the CLSA website not later than 15 January. Their narratives will cover the who/what/when/where/why and how of the process in great detail.
(The CLSA will, prior to putting the above proposals on the web site, reconcile any conflicts in dates or products.)
CONCLUSIONS
We the people should not stand for the irresponsible, wasteful consistent conduct of our elected leaders and members of Congress.
Given the overall irresponsibility and potential waste of Billions of dollars in the current approach to the annual budget process, does it make more sense to produce a biannual budget that will be required on 30 September of every non-election year?
BOTTOM LINE:
President-elect Trump is working hard to cause the swamp to be drained and for the Executive Branch to become more efficient and less costly. He should take advantage of this popular initiative and press hard for the Speaker of the House and Leader of the Senate to immediately demand an update to the Budget Reform Act, 1974 to give it some teeth and demand Congressional actions that will cause the entire budget process to be completed on time every time.
TWO NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS
One, parts of this concept of operations was first published about three years ago but it fell on deaf ears of the Biden/Harris administration. Much has changed and is changing just since the 5 November election. If you know the president or his staff or advisors, please make them aware of this potential initiative that could cut hundreds of Billions in spending.
Two, with President-elect’s attitude towards change and improvement there are a number of concepts of operations that could potentially interest him. They are all contained in a book entitled, Fix the Systems, Transform America. the subjects include:
Our Education System
Race Relations
Illegal Immigration
Voter Fraud
Federal Deficit Spending Cuts by,
Reducing Size and Scope of the Executive Brance
Fixing Congress
Term Limits
Universal Service for Young Adults
Achieve World Peace Forever
I’m not trying to sell books; I want to help fix America and now could be the time for several or all of these topics to take flight. As a minimum, the concept for operations is included to fix each one and could be a start point for a team to begin thinking through these problems as opposed to beginning with just a blank piece of paper.
PS: During the presidential campaign Harris was constantly advocating, “a new way forward” because it was a catchy phrase, not because she actually could articulate one. While not naming “it,” her new way forward that she did articulate was more taxes, more spending, bigger government with more regulations. President-elect Trump, on the other hand, and without using the phrase, is in fact actively working on a new way forward that will positively impact all Americans…..smaller government, fewer bureaucrats, balanced spending, secure borders, economic growth, strength through real deterrence, law abiding communities, deported criminals, and hopefully some of the issues named above. Need your help expanding the president-elect’s horizon with some suggested problems/solutions in the book.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com