WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) joined U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to reintroduce bipartisan budget reform legislation that would shake up the way Congress budgets federal tax dollars and allow for greater oversight of government spending. The legislation would convert Congress’ annual appropriations process to a two-year budget cycle.

The Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, S.306, would force Congress to become a better steward of the taxpayers’ money by moving the federal government to a two-year budget cycle, with one year for appropriating federal dollars and the other year devoted to oversight of federal programs.

In 2013, the biennial budgeting proposal passed by a 68-31 vote in the Senate as an amendment to that year’s budget resolution, which is a non-binding blueprint. In 2015, the Senate Budget Committee held a hearing on the legislation. Additionally, in 2016, both Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and then-House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., included versions of biennial budgeting in separate proposals to reform the federal budget process.

The legislation requires the president to submit a two-year budget at the beginning of the first session of a Congress. Members of Congress would then need to adopt a two-year budget resolution and two-year appropriations bills during that first session. The second session of a Congress would then be devoted to the consideration of authorization bills and oversight of federal programs.

The biennial budgeting concept has been endorsed by Republican and Democratic presidents, as well as by numerous federal budget experts. Sen. Warner has firsthand experience with the efficacy of biennial budgeting from his tenure as governor of Virginia, which operates on a two-year budget cycle. Nineteen states operate under a biennial budgeting cycle.

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