The first and foremost function of the U.S. Congress is to produce a federal budget by the end of September for the following fiscal year. This is accomplished by passing a series of appropriation bills in Congress. Not difficult to understand.
On 20 March 2026, Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. Every American should see this. In part he wrote,
“The U.S. Senate is broken. That U.S. federal debt is approaching $39 trillion is only the most obvious evidence proving this point. Since I entered Congress in 2011, we should have passed 180 appropriations bills before the start of the fiscal year they were funding. We’ve passed only 6 on time. That’s a 96% failure rate.
Owing to that dysfunction, in the past 15 years we’ve had 5 shut-downs, relied on 57 continuing resolutions to fund government on an interim basis and increased or suspended the debt ceiling a dozen times, allowing the federal government to incur an additional $24 trillion in debt.
The editorial went on to discuss the 60-vote rule required to end a Senate filibuster.
The conclusions from Senator Johnson’s 15 years in the Senate is that, as an operational organization, it is hopelessly dysfunctional, a complete failure and has no sense whatsoever of fiscal responsibility. For decades, in surveys of organizations the American people trust the most, Congress consistently finishes dead last, rightfully so.
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY OR LACK THEREOF
Before getting to the main issue, fixing Congress, it is insightful to look at an illustration on fiscal irresponsibility. December 2020 Congress passed a 5,600-page Covid Relief law. It was a difficult time in America and the country needed a helping hand. But what they got defies all common sense.
$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.
This is just a sampling of the pork earmarked in the must-pass Covid-19 relief bill.
Are any of these Covid related? No. Had $500 million for museums and libraries been scrutinized by experts in committee before being voted on the Senate floor? No. Should we be borrowing money for these types of expenditures? If viewed separately by the American taxpayers, would they pass the smell test? Absolutely not.
This level off ineptitude and irresponsibility goes way beyond just not being able to produce an annual budget on time.
WHY HAS CONGRESS BECOME SO INEPT?
Simply stated, they do not have a set of established standards and any operational organization without standards is a failed organization. Establish and enforce a set of simple standards and a lot of things in Washington can get fixed, quickly.
However, keep in mind that change is a frightening concept to many organizations, especially government. Fixing Congress will take some courage and strong, sensible, insightful leadership.
SEVEN OPERATIONAL STANDARDS
The start point for fixing Congress is understanding that in the United States, Office of Inspector General is a generic term for the oversight division of a federal or state agency aimed at preventing inefficient or unlawful operations within their parent agency. Such offices are attached to many federal executive departments.
Using that principle, a small agency can be formed under the U.S. Inspector General (free from Congressional influence) inside the General Services Administration (an independent government organization) let’s call it the U.S. Congressional Legislation Standards Authority (CLSA) Their sole purpose will be to enforce these seven standards and to administer the life-cycle of a piece of legislation as explained below.
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. This web site will be managed solely by the CLSA; The sponsors of the 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 staff 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 the following 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. For example, “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.”
STANDARD NUMBER TWO, Sunset Legislation: This is a measure within a statute, regulation or other law that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific 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 Executive Branch organization to be stood up. 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 5,600-page Covid-19 relief bill there were scores of organizations funded from this bill that had absolutely zero association with the Covid-19 outbreak or relief thereof. For example, “$300 million Endowment for the Arts.”
Hereafter all of the provisions of a particular bill must clearly identify with the subject, purpose and intent of the bill. It will save many tens 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 5,593-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.
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.
FIRST, THE NON-BUDGET PROCESS BILLS will get processed in one continuous 90-day timeframe. 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.
STANDARD NUMBER SIX, Leaders cannot hide a pending Bill: The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate continuously 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 1, PAGE 1, TITLE, OWNERSHIP and SCHEDULE.
-Title of the legislation
-Date which starts the 90-day calendar.
-Not-later-than date for floor vote on the bill.
-The member of Congress who is the principal sponsor plus all co-sponsors.
-Author of the proposed bill (a member of Congress, a Congressional committee staff, Executive Branch Department, Non-governmental organization, lobbyist, private citizen, etc.).
-Sunset legislation date.
-Schedule of committee hearings.
-When determined, the actual date to be debated and voted on the floor of the House or Senate.
SECTION 2, PAGE 2, LEGISLATIVE INTENT.
The narrative for page 2 will be limited to one single page, font 12 and must begin with the words, THE PURPOSE OF THIS LEGISLATION IS TO…….(finish the sentence).
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.
SECTION 3, PAGE 3, MAJOR COMPONENT OUTLINE.
For legislation with multiple parts, this section of the Standard Format will provide an outline of the major elements. It is similar to a Table of Contents but with a few sentences explaining each entry.
SECTION 4, PAGE 4, THE BILL’S ENTIRE NARRATIVE
THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS LEGISLATION, is based on the 1974 Congressional Budget Act.
There will be some CLSA Standard Format differences for the 12 separate appropriation bills, as follows:
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 by the first Monday in February.
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ACTION: Upon receipt various Committees begin reviewing their respective sections of the budget; the process is spear-headed by the Budget Committee.
BUDGET RESOLUTION: The Budget Resolution document is then considered on the House Floor and goes through a similar process in the Senate and to be completed not later than April 15th. The CLSA will closely monitor the resolution process looking for violations of the standards on earmarking and applicability.
Between April 15th and May 15th, the differences must be reconciled between the House and Senate into the compromise resolution for all 12 separate appropriations bills. May 15 then begins the 90-day CLSA Standard window for passage of the 12 budget appropriations.
Failure to pass the appropriation bills on time results in either passing continuing resolutions (CRs) or shutting down the government. Congress has used CRs in 40 of the last 44 fiscal years. In FY 2013 a full-year CR covered 7 of the 12 appropriations. It has been 23 years since all of the appropriations bills were passed prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. In the years there have been an average of 4.6 CRs per fiscal year. Continuing resolutions waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars because the CR fully funds budget items in the previous budget that would not be included in the applicable fiscal year. This is what one would call unacceptable institutionalized ineptitude.
How is Congress doing on development of an on-time budget?
- Since passage of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act, Congress has passed all its required appropriations measures on time only four times: fiscal 1977, 1989, 1995 and the last time 1997, 28 years ago.
- In six of the seven most recent fiscal years, Congress never adopted a formal budget resolution at all. This indiscipline represents the beginning of the downfall of the entire annual budget process.
- The FY 2026 budget. As of 25 July 2025, the House had approved 9 of the 12 Bills out of Committee and passed 2 of the 12 appropriations Bills on the floor. The Senate had approved 6 of the 12 out of Committee but none considered on the Senate floor.
- Rather than press on and develop an on-time budget, both houses of Congress went on vacation for the month of August.
- Without a 2026 budget the government shut down until 12 November when a continuing resolution and 3 of the 12 appropriations were enacted. In January, 2026, 3 additional appropriations bills were passed. The Department of Homeland Security is currently the only remaining agency without year-long appropriations.
CONCLUSIONS
The above serves to illustrate the level of disfunction in today’s Congress, the extreme effects of a deep-seated culture of blame, abrogation of constitutional responsibilities, absence of fiscal responsibility and its inability to clean its own dirty laundry. Failure to keep the budget process on a successful timeline leading to a completed budget prior to the beginning of the fiscal year is a failure of leadership over many years by the Speakers of the House and Senate Majority Leaders.
“$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 know 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.
With established Congress-wide operational standards in place and something like The U.S. Congressional Legislation Standards Authority (CLSA), we would have known on day-one who sponsored those insane earmarks. 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 to the press and to we-the-people would have caused it to go away.
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.
Successful, admired organizations operate this way every day. It is as simple as one-two-three. One, thoroughly define the TASK at hand. Two, define the CONDITIONS, in this case stand-alone bills vs appropriations bills. Three, set and enforce the operating STANDARDS without exceptions.
Task-conditions-standards; it is clearly within the art of the possible.
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 balanced budget.
BOTTOM LINE
There is zero reason to believe that someone in Congress is going to believe that change is possible, take this on and make it a reality.
President Trump proved in his first year of this term that he is all about change. He could announce a government-wide campaign beginning this year on fiscal responsibility. In so doing, he could uncover for we-the-people and the media the deep-seated operational irresponsibility of the past and current Congress. Lay out the billions already wasted from earmarked legislation, government shutdown and continuing resolutions for FY 2026.
This solution is comprehensive, simple, no cost to set it up and could literally be operational in a few weeks. Mr. President, make it happen.