House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) wants to know if President Obama will, once again, miss the statutory deadline for submitting a budget proposal to Congress.
By law, the president must submit an annual budget to Congress by the first Monday in February, a deadline Obama only met once during his first term in office. He has already missed that deadline more times than any president dating back to the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which established it.
“Under prior administrations, the budget deadline has been met with few exceptions, giving Congress the time to evaluate and address the President’s budget proposals,” Ryan wrote Wednesday in a letter to Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. “Unfortunately, a delay in the budget submission of the President’s budget request affects Congress’s ability to carry out its budget duties.”
Reports suggest the White House budget for fiscal year 2014 might not be ready until March.
“Given the critical importance of addressing our nation’s fiscal problems, I am writing to ask whether the President will submit his budget request this year on or before February 4 as required by law,” Ryan wrote. “If the Administration does not plan to meet the statutory deadline, when do you anticipate the request being made?”
President Obama has similarly failed to meet a series of other statutory budget deadlines, as outlined herein a chart compiled by Ryan’s office.
He is hardly alone. It has been more than 1,350 days since Senate Democrats last passed a budget resolution, though some Republicans are hoping the upcoming debt-ceiling negotiations may finally bring an end to that disturbing trend.