Congress is divided and dysfunctional. More importantly, it is failing to discharge its constitutional duties. As a result, our nation is “at risk,” and public trust and confidence in Congress is near a historic low.
Congress only has one annual duty under the Constitution — to pass appropriations bills to fund federal operations. We have already experienced two government shutdowns this fiscal year, and Congress has still not passed a full fiscal 2027 funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The last time Congress passed all the appropriations bills before the beginning of the fiscal year was 1996! In addition, it has only done so four times since 1950! That is an F minus in performance.
If Congress does not pass all the appropriations bills before the beginning of fiscal 2027, there should be an automatic continuing resolution at base prior year funding levels. In addition, Congress should be required to stay in session until all the appropriations bills are passed. It should not be paid during this period, and there should be no retroactive pay.
Beyond short-term funding failures, Congress has also lost control of our nation’s finances. It has allowed total federal debt/GDP to rise from a pre-World War II average of less than 40% to 59% at the end of fiscal 2003, to 124% today, and rising. In addition, the Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance trust funds are projected to become exhausted within seven years. Despite these facts, Congress has failed to take steps to ensure the solvency and sustainability of these important social insurance programs and defuse our ticking debt bomb.
Saving Social Security and preventing a debt crisis will require the creation of a statutory Fiscal Reform Commission. H.R. 3289, which is a bipartisan bill, is a good start. Importantly, any fiscal commission should have adequate time to educate and engage the public on our challenge and ways to address it. It also needs to have separate sets of recommendations for saving Social Security versus addressing the balance of our overall fiscal challenge. After all, Social Security reform cannot be considered part of the budget reconciliation process in the Senate, but other fiscal reforms can. The goal of the broader fiscal reform legislation should be to achieve a reasonable and sustainable debt/GDP ratio by a certain year in the future.
The need for such a commission has been endorsed by a wide range of groups, and the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus. They recognize that the related tough choices will need to happen through a special process rather than the regular order.
If we want to restore and sustain fiscal sanity, it will take a constitutional amendment. The debt ceiling has failed to restrain the growth of the federal government and mounting debt burdens. In addition, statutory approaches have not stood the test of time. Only a constitutional amendment can bind current and future Congresses.
Leadership has made it clear that Congress cannot achieve the necessary two-thirds support in both houses to propose a fiscal responsibility amendment. Therefore, we need to pursue the state-led amendment option under Article 5.
The Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation discovered over three years ago that Congress should have called a limited Article 5 convention as far back as 1979, but failed to act. Most recently, the National Federalism Commission confirmed this finding and noted that an adequate number of active state applications existed as recently as 2017. H.C.R. 15, which is sponsored by House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX), is designed to address this constitutional breach by Congress. Importantly, a majority of the states have active applications limited to the subject of fiscal responsibility. This will help to ensure that any Article 5 convention does not run away.
Congress needs to pass H.C.R. 15 to discharge its express and non-discretionary responsibility to call a single-subject Article 5 convention. Failure to do so within a reasonable period is likely to result in a suit by the states that will have to be handled by the Supreme Court.
The House is taking steps to address the above important issues, but the Senate is missing in action! It has become a laggard in connection with fiscal responsibility issues. This must change.
WE MUST PRESSURE WASHINGTON TO DEFUSE THE DEBT BOMB
Congress, in cooperation with the Federal Reserve, bailed out financial institutions in 2008 without holding the responsible parties accountable. If we do not change course and experience a crisis of confidence in our ability to put our finances in order, no one will be able to bail out America. We need to solve our own problem.
It is time for Congress to get to work, discharge its constitutional duties, and take steps to create a better future for America and Americans. Failure to act will have serious adverse economic, national security, foreign relations, and domestic tranquility consequences over time. Working together, we can keep America great!
Hon. David M. Walker is the Former Comptroller General of the United States and Chair of the Fiscal Sustainability Foundation