There were lots of smiles in the Capitol on Thursday, as the U.S. Senate gave final approval to a giant Omnibus funding bill and sent it to President Obama for his signature. The vote was 72-26.
But as Senators were congratulating each other for their hard work in finishing the budget, a quick look at the calendar showed that lawmakers wrapped up that job exactly three and a half months after the start of the budget year, which began on October 1, 2013.
Three and a half months late.
But that was better than what happened with the previous year's budget, which wasn't finished until the fiscal year was almost half over - lawmakers didn't get that done until March 26, 2013 instead of by October 1, 2012.
The last time the Congress completed all of its budget work on time was in 1996, as Republicans threw a bunch of bills into one and passed them right before the October 1 deadline.
Democrats were able to get all twelve individual budget bills approved by October 1 in 1994 - the last time that happened in regular order, almost 20 years ago.
In other words, delay has become the norm on the budget in the Congress, and the October 1 deadline is just another page on the calendar.
Let's go back over the last 14 years and see when the budget process was completed:
+ 6 of the 14 years, Congress passed all the bills by December (2000, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011)
+ That means in 8 of the 14 years in this sample, the budget process slid into the next calendar year
+ Of those 8 years - 3 times the work was finished in January of the next year (2001, 2003 and 2013)
+ 2 times the work was wrapped up in February of the next year (2002 and 2006)
+ 2 times the budget work ended in March of the next year (2008 and 2012)
+ For 2010, the process finally finished in April of the next year.
In other words, it's become a habit to finish the budget work after the Christmas holidays in many years.
Here is your handy dandy list of the budget year and when that budget work was finally finished:
FY 2001 - December 21, 2000
FY 2002 - January 10, 2002
FY 2003 - February 20, 2003
FY 2004 - January 23, 2004
FY 2005 - December 8, 2004
FY 2006 - December 30, 2005
FY 2007 - February 15, 2007
FY 2008 - December 26, 2007
FY 2009 - March 11, 2009
FY 2010 - December 19, 2009
FY 2011 - April 5, 2011
FY 2012 - December 23, 2011
FY 2013 - March 26, 2013
FY 2014 - January 16, 2014
It has not mattered which party has been in charge since 2000, which was the last year of the Clinton Administration - the budget process isn't working when either party is in charge.
Will Fiscal Year 2015 be any different? The October 1 deadline is just eight and a half months away.
What could Congress do to meet that deadline?
Maybe work some late nights, not go away for five weeks for an August break, and actually bring all twelve budget bills to the floors of the House and Senate before Labor Day.
I'll believe it when I see it.
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