Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

Curbing Federal Emergency Spending: New Study Release

by January 9, 2024
January 9, 2024
Curbing Federal Emergency Spending: New Study Release

Romina Boccia and Dominik Lett

We’ve just released a new paper providing comprehensive estimates of “emergency spending” going back to 1992. The key takeaway: Congress is increasingly abusing emergency designations to evade spending limits. With Congress still considering $110 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine and Israel, it is high time we recognize the fiscal and national security consequences of unpaid‐​for emergency spending. We write in our new policy analysis:

Congress has designated $12 trillion in spending for emergencies over the past 30 years. Poorly designed emergency spending rules allow Congress to routinely designate non‐​emergency line items as emergencies, increasing wasteful and excessive spending. High deficits, an escalating federal debt, and the insolvency of major entitlement programs mean that Congress is facing several budgetary challenges that will only grow in importance. It’s time for Congress to rein in emergency spending and its abuse.

Emergency spending totals $12 trillion over 30 years. That’s 43 percent of the current public federal debt before considering interest costs.

Major emergencies have a big impact on the budget. The two largest increases in federal debt over the last three decades were directly related to the extraordinary emergency fiscal responses to the Great Recession and COVID-19 pandemic. Following the most lavish emergency spending binge in US history during the pandemic, which helped drive inflation and interest rates to historic highs, Congress should reform emergency spending and avoid future emergency spending excesses.

Congress needs a budget enforcement mechanism for emergency spending. Clearly establishing what qualifies as an emergency and requiring a higher voting threshold for emergency designations would primarily target questionable “emergency” spending. Without a process to offset emergency spending, Congress will continue to use emergencies as a pretext to pass budget‐​breaking spending initiatives with no plan to rein in future spending.

The two largest increases in federal debt over the last three decades were directly related to the extraordinary emergency fiscal responses to the Great Recession and COVID-19 pandemic.

Myopic abuse of emergency designations contributes to the long‐​term fiscal challenge. Over the past decade, Congress designated one in every ten dollars of federal budget authority as emergency spending. Congress should terminate never‐​ending emergency declarations and reform the emergency spending process to enhance accountability and transparency by: offsetting emergency spending, including justifications for how emergency designations meet all five statutory criteria; raising the voting threshold for emergency designations; enhancing transparency in executive emergency‐​spending reporting; and revising the budget baseline to better reflect the temporary nature of emergency designations.

Without emergency spending offsets, Congress will continue to use emergencies as a pretext to pass budget‐​breaking spending initiatives.

Here’s what other budget experts have to say about our research:

“Congress must properly track and manage the entire federal budget—ALL spending and revenue, including emergency response—to serve the American people well. This paper’s comprehensive account of emergency spending and its recommended solutions will be a useful contribution to Congress getting its house in order.”

– Kurt Couchman, Senior Policy Fellow, Fiscal Policy, Americans for Prosperity

“This is outstanding work that fills a big gap. Comprehensive, transparent/​honest, easy to follow, and covers the (sadly limited) range of potential reforms.”

– David Ditch, Senior Policy Analyst, Budget Policy, Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, Heritage Foundation

“This paper makes many important contributions to the discourse on emergencies, and its new estimates of unforeseen spending are the most thorough ever produced. Policymakers would be wise to consider Romina and Domink’s work as they consider how best to address the burgeoning national debt.”

– Jonathan Bydlak, Fmr. Director, Governance Program, Fiscal and Budget Policy, R Street Institute

Read the full paper here.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Duncan Bannatyne, OBE, Joins Assisted Living Project as Non-Executive Board Member
next post
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells hands back CBE ‘with immediate effect’

You may also like

An Idea Whose Time Should Never Come: Using...

November 12, 2024

Prohibition Kills

July 10, 2024

New Emergency Spending Would Cost $28-$41 Billion More...

February 29, 2024

A Prelude to New FTC Scrutiny of Occupational...

March 4, 2025

The State of Student Loan Forgiveness: June 2024

June 3, 2024

The “Digital Gold” Fallacy, or Why Bitcoin Can’t...

November 29, 2024

U.S. Allowing Weapons Customers to Commit Crimes Against...

August 29, 2023

Miller Says We Can Suspend Habeas Corpus Because...

May 19, 2025

The Incoherence of the White House’s Anti- “Junk...

March 11, 2024

States Pursue Alternative Licensing Pathways for Lawyers

March 28, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • 3 Stock Setups for the Second Half of 2025

      June 28, 2025
    • Trump touts administration’s progress on peace deals, says world leaders ‘respect our country again’

      June 27, 2025
    • Venezuelan opposition member details harrowing 400-day captivity at UN

      June 27, 2025
    • Anxious Republicans turn to Trump amid divisions over ‘big, beautiful bill’

      June 27, 2025
    • JD Vance poised to clinch victory for Trump’s landmark bill as GOP finalizes strategy

      June 27, 2025
    • Trump secures record-shattering $1.4B for political war chest, will be ‘dominant force’ for GOP in midterms

      June 27, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,329)
    • Investing (2,081)
    • Politics (15,841)
    • Stocks (3,176)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved