This phrase "deem as passed" may be familiar to those of you who followed the health care debate. The House considered using this procedural sleight of hand to pave the way for swift passage of the reconciliation package. Ultimately, House leadership decided against this tactic and brought the mammoth $2.5 trillion bill to the floor for a vote. While we certainly opposed the legislation, we were happy to see an up-or-down vote because the "deem as passed" approach is shady and in violation of the spirit of the Constitution.
Unfortunately, House leaders moved yesterday to "deem as passed" the budget that we have been waiting for since April. The Committee on the Budget (minority staff) released a press statement and said, "For the first time since the creation of the Congressional budget process, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget, and even evaded a direct vote on a procedural measure that will allow the Appropriations Committee to spend taxpayer dollars for the coming fiscal year. Instead, the House agreed to a rule for an unrelated spending bill, which included the adoption of a 'deeming resolution' in place of an actual budget."
The "unrelated spending bill" they are referring to is H.R. 4899, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill, which we opposed in a Vote Alert distributed to House offices. H.R. 4899 contains roughly $72 billion in "off-budget" spending that should be debated through the normal budget process. Furthermore, this "war" supplemental includes $35.4 billion for non-military purposes, including $10 billion for an Education Jobs Fund to temporarily bail out states with budget shortfalls, $5.1 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and $4.95 billion for the federal Pell Grant program.
The deeming resolution (passed rule) is NOT a budget resolution as set forth in the Congressional Budget Act and does nothing to align overall spending, tax, deficit, and debt levels. Moreover, it increases non-emergency spending by $30 billion over 2010 and practices zero fiscal restraint. Let's remind Congress that it's their job to enact a budget. Passing monumental pieces of spending legislation is bad enough, but taking those votes with no budget blueprint in place is downright inexcusable and should not be tolerated. We did not put our leaders in office to give in to political pressure and ignore the interests of the American people.