President Biden failed to give Congress a budget request yesterday. He also neglected to submit a National Security Strategy. By law, both are due to Congress on the first Monday in February.
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA) have had enough of presidents flouting the law. Yesterday, they introduced the “Send Us Budget Materials and International Tactics In Time (SUBMIT IT) Act” to condition presidents’ State of the Union address on giving Congress that year’s budget request and security strategy.
It’s a smart way for Congress to hold presidents accountable.
Congress needs that information for budget, appropriations, and defense authorization bills. True, the president’s policy proposals are mostly ”dead on arrival.” Yet the details give Congress the foundation for budget legislation and defense bills. (RELATED: STEPHEN MOORE: The Biden Administration Is Once Again Trying To Fix Something That Ain’t Broke)
Delayed reporting from the executive branch holds up everything and makes Congress’ annual legislation less likely to succeed.
Unfortunately, presidents’ budget proposals have become chronically late. The Budget Act requires the president to submit it on or before the first Monday in February. President George W. Bush only missed the mark in his first year. President Barack Obama’s budgets ranged from on time (twice) to 65 days late. Two of President Donald Trump’s budgets were just a week late, but the other two arrived in March. President Biden’s have been 116, 49, and 31 days overdue.
Presidents are even sloppier with the national security strategy. Instead of the required annual updates along with the budget request, they’ve moved to just one per presidential term and whenever they feel like it. That’s unacceptable. The world changes all the time, and security and budgeting belong together.
Unbelievably, Congress has kept inviting presidents to give their fancy State of the Union speech before getting the budget request, let alone the security strategy. Typically, the Speaker of the House first invites the president, and Congress approves a resolution for a joint session of Congress.
Presidents absolutely love to give the State of the Union address. It’s a nationally televised speech with millions watching before a joint session of Congress with cabinet members and justices of the Supreme Court attending where the president can push his agenda and feel extra special.
The Constitution doesn’t require this. It just says that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.” Presidents could easily submit that information in writing. If presidents want to give these much-desired annual speeches, they should have to give Congress the information it needs to start legislating on time.
It makes sense for presidents to submit budget and security proposals before giving the State of the Union speech. If the president proposes outlandish policies or ignores important priorities, members of Congress can respond with solid evidence of misplaced presidential priorities. This would improve accountability for the executive branch and make presidents more responsible with their requests to Congress.
This approach is standard in most states. Governors’ state of the state addresses usually happen after or when they deliver their budget proposals. It’s part of the reason why state budgeting is healthier than federal budgeting.
Sen. Ernst and Rep. Carter’s SUBMIT IT Act would pull Congress back toward the center of our constitutional order by leveraging what presidents crave to support the policy process.
Kurt Couchman is senior fellow in fiscal policy at Americans for Prosperity.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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