A letter sent by Rep. Jim Himes (CT-4) and four of his freshman colleagues to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this past Friday was the subject of the article “Freshman House Dems Push Their Leaders to Approve Budget Resolution,” which appeared in The Hill this weekend. The letter urged Democratic Leadership to consider and adopt a budget plan before proceeding with the FY2011 spending bills. Generally, Congress adopts a budget resolution that guides spending levels through the appropriations process. This year, Congressional Leadership is considering bypassing the budgeting process and moving straight into the appropriations process.
“Bypassing the budgeting process and going straight to spending is a recipe for disaster,” said Himes. “Families budget their spending, and government needs to do the same. We need to start making the difficult decisions now with the budget plan so we don’t find ourselves in even more dire straits.”
From the article:
Rep. Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.) and other first-term members, uneasy with large deficits, want Democratic leaders to put forth a budget blueprint and call votes on it so lawmakers can show they can deal with red ink.
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While senior Democrats in the House and Senate have yet to rule out a budget resolution, they've said they're considering a deeming resolution that would set the discretionary spending levels for next year but wouldn't include fiscal policy for the years beyond, which is what full-fledged budget resolutions do.
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Murphy's letter, delivered Friday to Pelosi, was also signed by freshman Democratic Reps. Mike Quigley (Ill.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Steve Driehaus (Ohio) and Jim Himes (Conn.).
"We write to you today to express our support for consideration and passage of a budget resolution for FY2011 that reduces our actual spending," the members wrote. "We accept passing a budget as part of the responsibility of governing we accepted when first elected in 2008."
The complete article is available here.