Good post! I fear Congress would respond to a sunset rule by simply enacting omnibus reauthorizations. Do you think that is likely to occur? Or are there sufficient parliamentary procedural hurdles to make doing that too hard?
It would have to be tightly written, first to avoid waivers from the Rules Committee and second to require a specific reauthorization, phase out, consolidation, or elimination of each federal program. It would have to be clear that a program that was not reauthorized would be eliminated by default. My worry is that the political will to enact and enforce a genuine sunset provision is not there yet, but a few more years of trillion dollar annual deficit may leave Congress no choice but to start eliminating out-dated, non-functional, wasteful, and duplicative programs in order to preserve the domestic programs it really wants to keep.
Excellent work I have always wondered what the remedy to all the self perpetuating programs was. The bloated federal government has to go on a diet. It appears that you have an excellent solution.
Good post! I fear Congress would respond to a sunset rule by simply enacting omnibus reauthorizations. Do you think that is likely to occur? Or are there sufficient parliamentary procedural hurdles to make doing that too hard?
It would have to be tightly written, first to avoid waivers from the Rules Committee and second to require a specific reauthorization, phase out, consolidation, or elimination of each federal program. It would have to be clear that a program that was not reauthorized would be eliminated by default. My worry is that the political will to enact and enforce a genuine sunset provision is not there yet, but a few more years of trillion dollar annual deficit may leave Congress no choice but to start eliminating out-dated, non-functional, wasteful, and duplicative programs in order to preserve the domestic programs it really wants to keep.
Excellent work I have always wondered what the remedy to all the self perpetuating programs was. The bloated federal government has to go on a diet. It appears that you have an excellent solution.