By Ray Lamont
Editor
February 27, 2008 06:45 am To The Gloucester Daily Times: Please find the answers to questions on the House Committee on the budget processes.
1) When do budget hearings begin?
The budget season traditionally begins on the first Monday in February, the deadline by which the President is required to submit his budget proposal to Congress for the coming fiscal year. Once the President's budget is submitted, the House Committee on the Budget holds hearings to examine the President's proposal. So far this year, the House Budget Committee, has held two hearings on the budget — one on the overall budget with OMB Director Nussle (2/7/08) and one on the Treasury Department's budget with Treasury Secretary Paulson (2/13/08). The Budget Committee has also scheduled three hearings for later this week — one on the Defense budget with Deputy Secretary of Defense England (2/27/08), one on the HHS budget with HHS Secretary Leavitt (also 2/27/08), and one to hear Members' views on the budget, at which any Member of the House may testify (2/28/08). To my knowledge, no Budget Committee hearings have yet been scheduled for March.
2) What is the budget process?
As noted above, the President submits his budget for the next fiscal year on the first Monday of every February. Subsequently, the budget is reviewed by the committees of the House and Senate. As part of this review process, the House Budget Committee holds a series of hearings with federal officials to receive testimony on various aspects of the President's budget proposal. Within six weeks of the President submitting his budget to Congress (essentially, mid-March), the committees of the House and Senate must submit "views and estimates" of spending and revenues within their respective jurisdictions to the House and Senate Budget Committees. The House and Senate Budget Committees then work to craft their own budget resolutions, which are considered by the House and Senate, respectively. House and Senate negotiators then convene to resolve differences between the two resolutions. Once these differences have been reconciled, both the House and the Senate consider the final budget resolution. Once this final version of the budget resolution is passed by both chambers, the budget process is considered to be complete and the appropriations process takes over.
3) Why is the elected mayor of a city prevented from appearing and testifying on budget issues?
The discretion of who to invite to testify before the Committee lies solely with the Committee Chairman, in this case, Congressman John Spratt of South Carolina. The Chairman has decided not to invite any nonfederal officials to testify on the budget. However, the Committee has repeatedly said that they are more than happy to accept a written letter from Mayor Kirk outlining her views and that those views — along with those of the many other state and local officials who submit such letters — would be afforded every consideration by the Committee when drafting the budget resolution. Tomorrow's hearing is an annual hearing and it is only for members of the current Congress.
In regard to Mayor Kirk specifically, the Congressman has been working with her for over a year to advance her views on the federal budget directly to the U.S. House of Representatives. Last year, dating back to when she was a School Committee member, we arranged for the House Budget Committee to work with School Committee Member Kirk to receive written testimony from her. School Committee Member Kirk was given the contact information for the Budget Committee person who would accept the written comments, but we later learned that she apparently decided ultimately not to pursue any dialogue with the Committee at that time.
This year the Congressman met personally with the Mayor, and subsequently the Washington D.C. legislative staff and the District Office staff met with her as well to review Gloucester's situation and needs. We understand that the Mayor had earlier asked Senator Kerry for an opportunity to address the Senate Budget Committee, and during her meeting with the Congressman she asked him if she might be able to testify before the House Budget Committee. The House Budget Committee was contacted to inquire about the options available to the Mayor. We were informed that, while the Committee is not inviting any non-federal official to testify before the Committee on the fiscal year 2009 budget, they would be more than happy to accept a written letter from Mayor Kirk outlining her views, and that her letter — along with those submitted by numerous other state and local officials — would be afforded full consideration by the Committee.
The Committee's practice is to anticipate that members will represent the interests of their many cities, counties and towns throughout their respective districts and it invites members to submit written testimony from constituent communities toward that end. The Congressman offered to appear before the Budget Committee during their Members' hearing this Thursday and submit her letter into the record of the hearing, and Mayor Kirk accepted the Congressman's offer. As of tonight, however, the office has received only the Mayor's letter expressing her disappointment that the Budget Committee would not be hearing directly from Mayors and local officials. We anticipate that the Mayor will be forwarding before Thursday's hearing any more extensive information that she indicated she'd like the Congressman to submit for the record.
Thank you,
Catherine M. Ribeiro Communications Director and Web Content Manager Congressman John F. Tierney (D-MA)
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