Senator Lankford Joins Joint Select Committee on Budget Reform, Attends First Meeting

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) yesterday attended the first meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform, a bi-partisan panel including members from the House and Senate. Lankford’s appointment to the committee was announced last week by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The panel’s focus is to reform the entire budget and appropriations process, which Lankford has strongly advocated for during his time in the House and Senate.

“The current budget process has been in place since the 1970s but has only worked four times as it was intended,” said Lankford. “The two government shutdowns earlier this year highlight the need for a complete overhaul of our broken budget process. With a $21 trillion of federal debt, Congress must do a better job to eliminate waste from the budget. We cannot get a better budget product until we get a better budget process. I’m grateful to Senate Leadership for allowing me to participate in this bi-partisan, bi-cameral group to propose serious budget reforms in the days ahead.”

In 2016, Lankford proposed budgeting changes, government shutdown prevention incentives, and the elimination of budgeting gimmicks. Since 2015, Lankford also introduced an annual government waste report called Federal Fumbles: 100 Ways the Government Dropped the Ball, which identifies examples of waste and solutions to fix the problem. 

The Joint Select Committee was formed under the Bipartisan Budget Act which passed last month. The Joint Select Committee is required to hold public hearings and vote on their findings and legislative recommendations no later than November 30, 2018, and will dissolve by December 31, 2018. The panel will include 16 members divided equally between the House and Senate.

Lankford serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, which has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate. Lankford sits on six subcommittees of the Committee on Appropriations including Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Financial Services and General Government; Homeland Security; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies; State-Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; and chairs the Legislative Branch Subcommittee.

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