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Editorial: Who is responsible for shutdowns?
Op-Ed · February 08, 2018


Congress has a problem meeting deadlines and it needs to fix it.


In 1974, federal lawmakers passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which enacted a new procedure for passing the budget and doing so by April 15.

Under this resolution, the new budget would start on Oct. 1 of each year.

This is why the 2013 government shutdown started on Oct. 1, closing big chunks of the federal government, including the Herbert Hoover Library-Museum and Hoover National Historic Site here in West Branch. That shutdown lasted 16 days.

Less than five years later, in 2018, we experienced a three-day shutdown from Jan. 20-22 because, from October 2017, our elected officials passed continuing appropriations resolutions, what some call a stopgap measure, to get us that far.

It’s all just jargon for delaying meaningful action, for lack of compromise and leadership. But before either the Democrats or Republicans get filled with glee or angst over this statement, here are several facts to consider since that Act went into full effect in 1977, some 41 years ago.

• Democrats controlled both the House and Senate in 1974 when they passed this new budget process. The first full year the system went into effect, 1977, the system worked and all of the spending bills passed on time. Yet the Democrats held that dual majority through 1981 and did not pass another budget on time.

• Under Democrat majorities, the first shutdown took place on May 1, 1980, lasting one day.

• The next shutdown took place the very next year, also lasting a day, but this time on Nov. 23, 1981, after Republicans took over the Senate.

• On Oct. 4, 1984, a shutdown lasted one afternoon under a Democrat-Republican split.

• On Oct. 17, 1986, a shutdown lasted one afternoon under a Democrat-Republican split.

• On Oct. 6, 1990, a shutdown lasted three days under Democratic majorities.

• On Nov. 14, 1995, two shutdowns lasted six days, then 27 days, under Republican majorities.

• Over the next 17 years, Republicans held dual majorities for nine years with no shutdowns. The Democrats did the same for five years. During three years, the two houses were split majorities. During one year, 2007, both houses flipped majorities from Republican to Democrat with no shutdowns.

• The 2013 shutdown happened with a split Congress.

• The 2018 shutdown happened with Republican majorities.

Seven of the nine shutdowns took place at the Congressional level. Two took place because presidents vetoed continuing appropriations bills, the first by Ronald Reagan in 1981, the second by Bill Clinton in 1995.

Democrat majorities oversaw two shutdowns, Republican majorities oversaw three shutdowns. Split majorities oversaw four shutdowns.

But wait, what about those other 32 years since 1977? In those years, Congress met its own deadline for the budget only four times. As mentioned above, 1977 was the first, and three more occurred in 1989, 1995 and 1997. That means 28 times they managed to pass a budget and avoid a shutdown, but only after missing the April 15 deadline.

It may, or may not, be worth noting that the 1974 Act also created standing budget committees in the House and Senate and created the supposedly non-partisan Congressional Budget Office — whose job it is to determine the costs of budgetary and economic proposals.

Passing a federal budget is one of the fundamental responsibilities of Congress, and yet Congress finds itself incapable of meeting self-imposed deadlines except for once out of every 10 years or so.

Name one candidate for the U.S. House or Senate that did not campaign promising to “work” or “compromise” with members of the opposite party. And yet we see perpetual failure.

Author T.S. Eliot, in his book, “The Cocktail Party,” includes a scene where a woman tells her psychiatrist of her profound unhappiness, saying she hopes all of her problems are her own fault. When the psychiatrist asks why, she responds, “Because, if there isn’t, then there’s something wrong with the world itself — and that’s much more frightening! That would be terrible. So I’d rather believe that there is something wrong with me, that can be put right.”

In other words, if she is the problem, then she can do something about it.

In 41 years, Congress has failed to meet its own deadline 37 times — not counting multiple continuing resolutions — and nine of those led to government shutdowns.

So guess what, Congress? You’re responsible for this problem.

Fix it.