A bipartisan group of four House members has introduced legislation designed to overhaul Congress's failing budget system by shifting to a two-year planning framework and establishing a commission to cut the annual deficit to 3% of GDP within a decade. Representatives Steve Womack (R-AR), Ed Case (D-HI), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), and Scott Peters (D-CA) recently unveiled the Budgeting for a Better America Act (H.R. 9452), which the National Taxpayers Union Foundation says addresses fundamental weaknesses that have plagued congressional budgeting for decades. The legislation arrives as lawmakers routinely blow past statutory deadlines, depend on continuing resolutions, and typically finish budget work only after the fiscal year has already started — failures that have eroded fiscal discipline while the national debt climbs toward $40 trillion.
The bill would replace annual budgeting with a biennial cycle in which Congress adopts a budget resolution during the first session covering both years, with the deadline moved from April 15 to May 1 to allow lawmakers to incorporate the latest economic data. The second session would concentrate more heavily on program oversight and examination of long-term budgetary challenges, including the looming insolvency of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Each budget resolution must include the ratio of public debt to GDP, the annual deficit-to-GDP ratio, and a complete accounting of tax expenditure losses — disclosing total outlays and revenue losses tied to deductions, exclusions, credits, and other tax code preferences. The legislation would also create an 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform tasked with developing recommendations to bring the annual deficit down to 3% of GDP within 10 years and push the government toward long-term fiscal sustainability, with 6 presidential appointees, 6 Senate members, and 6 House members. The commission wouldn't just issue general advice — it would translate its proposals into legislative language for Congress to consider, giving lawmakers a concrete package rather than another fiscal report that can be acknowledged and shelved.
According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, the recurring failures of the current system "have weakened fiscal discipline and contributed to a national debt approaching $40 trillion." The report notes that biennial budgeting was also a central component of the Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act of 2019, developed by Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), which became the first bipartisan budget-reform package approved by the Senate Budget Committee since 1990. The foundation writes that while a commission "cannot guarantee that Congress will make difficult and necessary choices to address the nation's unsustainable debt," it could provide a structured process for examining the growing gap between federal revenues and spending commitments and for placing specific reforms before lawmakers.
The bill incorporates several transparency measures intended to force earlier confrontation with fiscal realities. The president's annual budget would have to analyze the effects of long-term unfunded obligations in major entitlement programs over 25-, 50-, and 75-year periods, while also examining how recently enacted and proposed legislation would affect those obligations. Starting December 1, 2028, the president would submit an annual administrative budget with updated current- and prior-year fiscal estimates, giving Congress fresher information before the next budget cycle begins. The House and Senate Budget Committee chairs would hold an annual televised hearing with the Comptroller General to review the federal government's audited financial statements, financial condition, long-term fiscal projections, and social insurance obligations. The Congressional Budget Office would also brief newly elected members on federal budget matters before they take office, establishing a common foundation for understanding the nation's fiscal challenges. At a time of trillion-dollar deficits, rising interest costs, and the approaching insolvency of Medicare and Social Security, the foundation argues Congress can't afford to keep budgeting from one deadline to the next — this legislation would supply a more transparent and forward-looking framework for confronting fiscal reality.