An Open Letter to the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform
When looking at budget process reform, remember that through a series of historical accidents, 99 percent of the spending from the Highway Trust Fund is exempt from both statutory systems of budget discipline – the PAYGO process for mandatory spending, and the Budget Control Act spending caps for discretionary spending. Thus, Highway Trust Fund spending is also exempt from sequestration – because sequestration is only a tool used to enforce the statutory systems of budget discipline. Andthe real dollar amount of permissible Trust Fund spending, set in the annual appropriations bills, is also exempt from the 1974 Budget Act’s system of spending allocations to Congressional committees.