Republican Duo Unveils Budget Reform Bill

Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at ending a series of so-called budget “gimmicks.”

The nine-point plan, called the Honest Budget Act, would force the Senate to pass a budget resolution — something the upper chamber has not done in over two years — before it can move on appropriations bills. It would require a supermajority of Senators to approve “emergency” spending, which is not subject to offsets in other areas of the budget, and it would subject a greater percentage of the federal workforce to the two-year mandatory pay-freeze instituted by the Obama administration.

It would also end the practice of counting canceled spending as savings, unless the unused funds are actually returned to the Treasury instead of being issued elsewhere.

In a statement, the pair said that the bill would “confront the culture of fiscal manipulation that is bleeding our country of future prosperity.”

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