Chairman’s News Articles
During my first term in the U.S. Senate, Congress and the White House tackled what then-House Speaker Tip O’Neill had dubbed the third rail of politics: Social Security. That’s because those who spoke up about Social Security’s finances invariably learned the topic was political kryptonite. But President Ronald Reagan and Speaker O’Neill changed the narrative. […]
In 1984, when faced with $200 billion deficits and a national debt nearing $2 trillion, an emphatic Democrat Sen. Joe Biden warned of “economic disaster” unless Congress took “dramatic actions on deficits right now.” He was advocating for a government-wide spending freeze – a bipartisan proposal that he and I led to restore fiscal restraint to the […]
This Friday, May 28, the Biden Administration will release its budget, the first comprehensive look at the budgetary and economic implications of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), American Jobs Plan (AJP), and American Families Plan (AFP). Releasing it on a Friday before a holiday weekend, however, leaves the impression that the administration is trying to […]
Rushing back into the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also called the Iran nuclear deal, would be a singularly seismic event leading to chaos and instability in the Middle East.
The current situation at our southern border is unnerving. Despite recent claims by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that there is no crisis at our southern border, there is a major crisis brewing due to the misguided policies of the Biden administration. Whether it is the Biden administration’s reversal of the Remain in Mexico policy, […]
The economic damage wrought by the pandemic has revealed many things, and one glaring issue is the importance of an effective federal housing assistance system. Unfortunately, as millions of Americans are learning firsthand, we don’t have that. The Senate Budget Committee, which I chair, just released what we hope is a meaningful report showing how the federal […]
The economic damage wrought by the pandemic has revealed many things, and one glaring issue is the importance of an effective federal housing assistance system. Unfortunately, as millions of Americans are learning firsthand, we don’t have that. The Senate Budget Committee, which I chair, just released what we hope is a meaningful report showing how the federal […]
The Great American Outdoors Act is well-intentioned, with its goal of addressing the nearly $20 billion deferred maintenance backlog of our nation’s public lands. But the bill, which the Senate will vote on soon, would also add to the federal debt and empower the executive branch to acquire more federal land with limited accountability. Recognizing some of the bill’s […]
WASHINGTON—Hundreds of billions of federal tax dollars will be spent this year on programs with expired legislative authorizations — including thousands from a law passed in 1985 — according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), but Congress appears to be in no hurry to fix the problem. The CBO report — which was made public recently by […]
WASHINGTON—Almost as extinct in the nation’s capital as the dinosaurs in the National Museum of Natural History are bipartisan coalitions of legislators and advocacy groups pushing for much-needed landmark reforms in how federal officials spend tax dollars. But such a coalition has formed behind the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Vision Act of 2020, co-sponsored by Senate Budget Committee […]
Americans are amassing hefty debt in graduate programs and turning to repayment plans that offer loan forgiveness. But the trend is costing taxpayers and could make the popular programs politically untenable. A Congressional Budget Office report released Wednesday projects that loans made to graduate students over the next decade will account for 81 percent of […]
Almost half of federal student loans are being repaid through more generous income-driven repayment plans, new data show, with 80 percent of government subsidies now going to graduate student borrowers.
WASHINGTON—The U.S. government will forgive $207.4 billion in student debt for Americans who take out loans over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The biggest benefits will go to borrowers who attend graduate or professional school. The CBO projects the government will originate $1.05 trillion in new loans from 2020 to 2029. Much of […]
The aggregate balance of the hundreds of federal trust funds and other dedicated funds will start declining in two years, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Republican Senators Mike Enzi (WY) and Mike Braun (IN) asked the GAO to review the status of the funds that support Social Security, Medicare, flood […]
WASHINGTON—A new report contains blunt warning signs of an approaching fiscal crisis in federal trust funds backing Social Security, Medicare, flood insurance, and many other programs, according to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). “The GAO’s new report is another warning sign that Social Security, Medicare, and other trust fund programs on which many Americans rely are […]
Arlington, Va. – Americans for Prosperity (AFP) released a policy analysis today supporting the Enzi-Whitehouse budget legislation, which lays out five key budget process reforms that would make it easier and more imperative for Congress to address our looming spending and debt problems. The analysis, authored by AFP Senior Policy Fellow Alison Acosta Winters, dives into the Bipartisan Congressional Budget […]
December in D.C. means that it is the season of CRs: the series of continuing resolutions passed by Congress to keep the government funded, often for just a few weeks at a time. These short-term extensions are meant to give lawmakers time to try to finalize funding levels for the new fiscal year which already commenced back on October 1. Sadly, enacting these short term CRs has become an annual ritual for too many years now as the budget process has gradually broken down.
Even worse than the failure to pass a budget on time, repeatedly risking government
It is difficult to overstate how wrecked the federal budget process is. Late last month, President Trump signed a 30-day stopgap funding measure to dodge a government shutdown. This was the second time this autumn that Congress and the president had to resort to such a continuing resolution. Governing through short-term spending bills has become the rule […]
The Senate Budget Committee recently marked up and reported bipartisan legislation to reform the budget process. The Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act, introduced by Chairman Enzi (R-WY) and Senator Whitehouse (D-RI), would improve transparency and accountability in the budget process. It would make the budget resolution into a more effective governing tool by making it easier for policymakers to choose fiscal targets […]
It was almost done. After an hour-and-a-half of debate last week on reforming the way Congress budgets billions of dollars every year, Sen. Michael Enzi refused to call a vote on his bill. Most of the members of the panel were present except for those also on the Judiciary Committee, who were at the White House basking in […]
You don’t need to be a legislative expert to know that the Congressional budget process is broken. Total public debt is $23 trillion and counting, which is the equivalent of more than 103 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), and the fiscal year (FY) 2019 federal budget deficit alone approached $1 trillion. Lawmakers have time and time again proven unwilling to make […]
WASHINGTON—A package of fundamental reforms in how Congress does federal budgeting received overwhelmingly bipartisan support at the committee level and is now heading to the Senate floor, where it could face big hurdles. The principal sponsors of the Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act of 2019 are Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and committee […]
Considering the cacophony coming out of the Capitol, it would be excusable to have not heard about an important bipartisan piece of legislation moving forward. But this week the Senate Committee on the Budget put its stamp of approval on the Bipartisan Congressional Budget Act. Co-sponsored by Senate Budget Committee Chair Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Sen. […]
The Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday approved a bipartisan bill that aims to reform the federal government’s budget process. The Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act “would provide a more orderly and deliberative budget process focused on long-term fiscal planning,” according to committee chair Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), who sponsored the bill along with Sen. Sheldon […]
WASHINGTON – The Concord Coalition said today that a new budget process reform bill co-sponsored by Senate Budget Committee Chair Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Budget Committee member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) proposes reforms that would address some of the most vexing problems plaguing the current budget process. The Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act is also co-sponsored […]
OPINION — It is no secret that a vast majority of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. Too often our political debates are characterized by hyperpartisanship, rather than achieving meaningful outcomes for the American people. Nowhere is this problem more acute than when it comes to our inability to address our country’s unsustainable […]
OPINION — It is no secret that a vast majority of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. Too often our political debates are characterized by hyperpartisanship, rather than achieving meaningful outcomes for the American people. Nowhere is this problem more acute than when it comes to our inability to address our country’s unsustainable […]
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced the “Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act” to provide “a more orderly, deliberative budget process focused on long-term fiscal planning.” Enzi and Whitehouse added in a statement announcing their proposal that they believe “it would end the brinksmanship surrounding the debt […]
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and committee member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released bipartisan legislation Friday to reform the federal budget process. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Grassley (R-IA), Kaine (D-VA), Crapo (R-ID), King (I-ME), Graham (R-SC), Coons (D-DE), Barrasso (R-WY), Blunt (R-MO), Johnson (R-WI), Perdue (R-GA), Kennedy (R-LA), Cramer (R-ND), and Braun (R-IN). […]
CASPER, Wyo. — Wyoming’s United States Senator Mike Enzi criticized the “Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Plans Act of 2019” in a speech on the floor of the Senate. The bill has passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but a Wednesday, Oct. 23 statement from Enzi’s office says if it becomes law, it “would bail out some […]