As evidenced by the government shutdown of 2013, the regular order of the appropriations process in the House of Representatives is diminished, threatening government oversight and resulting in the dereliction of constitutional duties given solely to Congress.This study uses institutional and statistical data beginning with the 1974 liberal post-Watergate elections, through the 1994 Republican Revolution, and culminating with the 2010 Tea Party Wave, to analyze how and why the appropriations process has deteriorated to its current state of disarray. This study finds that both institutional changes, in the form of House Rule and party rule changes, as well as changes in membership vis-à-vis increased partisanship and polarization have created an appropriations process that has deteriorated into a state of disrepair. The true cause of this deterioration is the role of increasing and hyperpartisanship and asymmetric polarization as a result of the Republican Revolution of 1994 and made worse by the Tea Party Wave of 2010. There are few immediate fixes to the appropriations process due to the partisanship and polarization that have doomed it in the first place, as many fixes would require an Act of Congress, a possibility unlikely under the gridlock fostered by increased levels of partisanship and polarization. Instead, this study finds that the appropriations process in the House is dead, leaving a weakened system crippled by hyperpartisanship and asymmetric polarization and shirking the oversight of government funds and the enumerated powers of Congress, threatening government operations and operability.
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IT REALLY IS EVEN WORSE THAN IT LOOKS: THE END OF THE APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS AS WE KNOW IT
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