House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and several other House and Senate members Wednesday announced their push to move legislation switching the federal budget and appropriations process to a biennial schedule before the end of the 106th Congress.
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., endorsed the idea of adopting a two-year budget cycle, but neither has made any commitment to schedule floor time for a bill enacting such a procedure.
However, Dreier has garnered 245 cosponsors on a resolution calling for the House to pass biennial budget legislation this year. Three biennial budget bills have been introduced in House, authored by Reps. Charles Bass, R-N.H., Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, and Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.
Dreier said the Rules panel will begin hearings on the legislation next week with testimony from House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., an original cosponsor of the resolution.
But House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio-whose committee shares jurisdiction on budget process matters with the Rules panel-was notably absent from the news conference, along with senior Budget panel member Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, author of a comprehensive budget process reform package.
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