by Jordan Green, News Editor
The definition of procrastination, according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, is this: “To put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done.”
That sounds a lot like what the U.S. Congress is doing when it comes to the federal budget.
Last month, Congress passed yet another stop-gap resolution to temporarily fund the government. It’ll only be in effect until Dec. 20, less than three weeks from now.
A stop-gap is a bill Congress passes when members forget to craft a solid, detailed federal budget for the next fiscal year. A lack of a budget causes a funding gap.
And our country has faced two of them this year. When you’re too busy trying to impeach a duly elected president because you know he’s going to be reelected, you tend to neglect those kinds of fiscal responsibilities.
Congress has a history of procrastination when it comes to the federal budget.
According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, the federal government has had 20 funding gaps since 1977. In some cases, stop-gap bills have been passed. In others, they haven’t been. That’s why we have those nasty little government shutdowns.
The only way to prevent government shutdowns is to force Congress to pass budgets on time. But how does one do that? Earlier this year, one Oklahoma senator took a step in that direction. Senator James Lankford introduced a bill that would ban travel for U.S. senators, representatives, and certain congressional employees if Congress didn’t pass appropriations bills on-time. It was a bold maneuver, one that we commend.
But, as you can tell, that bill isn’t likely to pass. Voting for such a measure would require some degree of self-responsibility and self-discipline on the part of our nation’s senators and representatives. We’ll let you decide whether very many of them possess those qualities.
Until we elect more leaders who do have those virtues, things will remain the same on Capitol Hill. And we’ll see more fiscally irresponsible stop-gap bills make their way through Congress as an excuse for procrastination.