Just do what a lot of states have in place for expiring contracts….
If there is no agreement to go forward?
An automatic continuing resolution….
The budget ending just STAYS IN PLACE until a new one is approved….
Simple?
Congress can pass a law saying that if no budget is passed as the fiscal year expires, the government proceeds at current funding levels.
The Constitution created the executive branch and Congress as co-equal branches of government, each with the ability to negate the action of the other. The founders assumed that inaction was preferable to hasty bad decisions.
But what the founders failed to envision is the corrosive power of inaction when the president, the speaker of the House or the Senate majority leader refuse to enact a budget and shut the government down indefinitely.
There is no institutional check on inaction. The only solution is acquiescence. It’s time to restore a balance.
Congress and the president could avoid all future shutdowns by enacting a law providing that in the event of an appropriations lapse, a continuing resolution automatically kicks in to fund the government at current levels until a permanent appropriation is enacted.
That way, we would move back to budget decision-making based on ideas, data, persuasion, passage of legislation and potential vetoes by two co-equal branches of government. In our current state, success is based on who most successfully blames the other side for a shutdown, whose constituency cares least about the failure to deliver public services during one, and who is most subject to coercion.
An automatic continuing resolution would eliminate the collateral damage caused by holding federal employees hostage. They are innocent bystanders…..