{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=88994E89-5D47-42E6-96E6-E5C80ECB52CE", "Enzi Unveils Reforms to Fix Americas Broken Budget Process", "2016-12-07", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "WY", "Michael Enzi", "E000285", "www.enzi.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.,, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, today unveiled a summary of legislative reforms to fix America\u2019s broken budget process that he plans to focus on next year during the 115th Congress.\r\n\u201cHardworking taxpayers are eager for real change. With a new President taking office on January 20th, Congress has an opportunity \u2013 and responsibility \u2013 to get to work,\u201d said Chairman Enzi. \u00a0\u201cOne of our top priorities should be fixing America\u2019s broken budget process to provide our nation with a responsible fiscal blueprint and help guide our spending decisions now and into the future. As Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, this will be one of my top priorities in the new congress.\u201d\r\nThe Senate Budget Committee has been working on reforms that would fix America\u2019s broken budget process over the past year.\u00a0 Many of these reforms strengthen the congressional budget, the only existing tool that forces Congress to examine all spending and revenues, including automatic spending, over a ten-year period.\u00a0 Chairman Enzi has said that the budgeting process should be easier to adopt and harder to ignore. \u00a0\r\n\r\nEnzi stated that Congress should:\r\n \r\nReduce the needless political hurdles to passing a budget and making it harder to ignore overspending once Congress agreed to it;\r\n \r\n \r\nMake it harder to pass a bill that busts the congressional budget by requiring more votes to waive the violation;\r\n \r\n \r\nCreate new rules to ensure Congress passes its annual spending measures on time\u00a0 (The current process has been completed on time only four times in the last 40 years, and the last time it was completed on time was in 1998.\u00a0 Obviously this year is no exception to the rule.);\r\n \r\n \r\nSet aside specific floor time only for consideration of spending bills;\r\n \r\n \r\nEnact legislation establishing a two-year spending cycle, so that it has more time to review spending and complete its work; and\r\n \r\n \r\nEnact legislation that would end government shutdowns to prevent our annual, end-of-year spending crises.\r\n \r\nEnzi\u2019s full summary of legislative initiatives to fix the budget can be found HERE.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=88994E89-5D47-42E6-96E6-E5C80ECB52CE"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6445380859076977, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}