Congressman Dan Kildee Calls for Congress to Pass Budget

Congressman Dan Kildee, of Michigan's Fifth District, has called on Speaker of the House John Boehner to appoint conferees to a conference committee so that Congress can reach a bipartisan agreement on a budget. This follows actions from last month when both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed Concurrent Resolutions on the budget, yet conferees have yet to be appointed by the Speaker to resume budget negotiations.

In a statement, Kildee said "now that both chambers have passed their respective budgets, it's time for Speaker Boehner to appoint budget committee conferees to find compromise on a budget that creates jobs and responsibly reduces the deficit." He added that "differences of opinion should not be an excuse for dysfunction - Congress needs to enact a budget on time."

After the House and Senate have passed different versions of the bill, conference committees draft a compromise bill that both chambers can accept. Under regular order, each chamber should now appoint conferees to a committee to continue budget deliberations in order to reach a balanced solution.

Section 301 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 sets a statutory deadline of April 15th for Congress to complete action on adopting a joint budget resolution conference report. This deadline has already passed without a budget for Fiscal Year 2014 in place.

Kildee said this one of their "main duties is to pass a budget on time" and "this type of obstructionism and political posturing is exactly why people are fed up with Congress."