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The Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform, on which Congressman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) serves, held its first public hearing on Opportunities to Significantly Improve the Federal Budget Process.

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During the hearing, Arrington started his remarks by stating, “We believe the current [budget] process is broken, and we are committed to working in a bi-partisan, bi-cameral fashion to making it better, to making it work, not just for our institution but, most importantly, for the American people. If there’s one area I think highlights that Congress plays by a different set of rules than the American people, it’s certainly the budget process.” Expressing his concerns about the national debt, Arrington warned, “If we don’t do something to improve our situation, we will not only fail our colleagues, but we will have failed our children . . . If we stay on the current trajectory, I believe it is the biggest threat to our nation’s future. “I don’t think an external threat will take us down, and by down, I mean make us lose our exceptionalism. I think it will be like most civilizations; our most formidable foe is ourselves – our inability to govern ourselves. This ineptitude for self-governance, self-restraint, and self-discipline is highlighted most prominently in our current process.” Arrington then argued that there are two options: sacrifice now or sacrifice later. “We either make the sacrifices that every generation has made and muster the courage to put our country’s interest ahead of our own political interest, or . . . harsh and indiscriminate realities of a sovereign debt crisis will force us to change our ways. That is a sad state of affairs, that we know the train is heading for a collision, and we know probably collectively what needs to be done.” Arrington believes that the mandate of the select committee is “to ensure a process that results in timely and continuous funding of our government. The other component is to ensure that we have a process, mechanisms, and incentives in place for responsible and cost-effective budget outcomes.” “We must learn from history and our own experiences, but I believe fundamentally, Congress as a whole, by nature, does not have the collective will to do this. We have to find ways to align incentives, and if we do that, I think we’ll be successful.”

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