The Budget Process and the Size of the Budget

The new congressional budget process provides- members of Congress with a new set institutional mechanisms for making budget decisions. This article addresses the question whether or under what conditions rigid application of the new budget process (modeled as, first, selection of the size of the budget and, second, its division) produces budgets than a piecemeal appropriations process in which the size of the budget is residually. The theoretical result is that the new process sometimes results in large budgets. A testable implication of the theory is that given a choice of how the budget process is to be employed, members of Congress jointly consider and the expected outcomes under available institutional arrangements and the arrangement (usually a rule) that yields the most favorable outcome. Empirical from the budget process in the House from 1980 to 1983 are generally supportive the theoretically derived hypothesis of rational choice of institutional arrangements.