FMA writes a monthly column, “Hear it from FMA,” for FEDManager.com. This month we chose to highlight the state of Congress, and the concept of regular order. Ironically, regular order for appropriations has not been a regular occurrence for almost a quarter century. While the Senate is designed to be a consensus-building deliberative institution, it has turned into a body in which even funding the government is a partisan issue, annual budgets are rarely passed without endless and costly continuing resolutions (and some years go entirely without an annual budget), and compromise has largely been replaced with a brutal ethos focused on ramming through, or blocking, bills on completely partisan lines. 

In the piece, we note, “There has not been a year without at least one continuing resolution (CR) in this millennium. In 2007, 2011, and 2013, Congress relied instead on inefficient and costly CRs for the entire year. And the problem is getting worse. According to a 2019 Congressional Research Service report, “All told, since 2010, DOD has spent 1,186 days—more than 39 months—operating under a CR, compared to 259 days—less than nine months—during the eight years preceding 2010.”

Regrettably, Washington has seemingly become so inured to this state of affairs that the fact the government shut down for an hour at the end of Fiscal Year 2020 before yet another continuing resolution could be signed went almost completely unremarked on by the press and other outside observers. 

To read our full article on the subject, entitled “Regular Disorder,” please click here.