Enzi to Congress: Follow the Law and Pass a Budget

 Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., joined his Republican colleagues on the Senate Budget Committee in sending a letter to new Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray asking for a vigorous hearing and mark-up schedule that would result in the passage of a budget. It has been almost four years since the Senate last passed a budget. The letter sent to Chairman Murray proposed regular meetings and a timeline for drafting the nation’s fiscal blueprint. The Budget Act of 1974 requires the formal mark-up and passage of a budget every year. Excerpts from the letter are included below.

           “We believe the Budget Committee cannot be a bystander at this historic time when the nation will be confronting the most serious debt issues.  We must take the steps necessary to avoid what Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles have told our committee will be the “the most predictable economic crisis in history.” The work of our committee, and the process of marking up a budget, will play an important role in helping the Congress and the nation find our way through this dangerous period.

           “We believe that an open, fact-driven analysis of our situation as part of the lawfully required budget process will be good for America. Our requests and suggestions are not for an easy schedule but for a challenging one. The people deserve no less. Substance must override politics.

“We pledge to be active and positive contributors to this work. There will be clear policy differences, but what better place (or more important time) can there be to deal with them than in the committee that is charged with setting out a fiscal plan annually for the United States?”