A History Lesson on past Omnibus Budget Deals The August recess was a habit from back-in-the-day because at one time our U.S. Capitol didn't have the benefit of air conditioning. The Senate and House chambers are already full of much hot air without Mother Nature adding to the problem. In 1970, Congress basically made it a permanent recess when they included it in the legislative reorganization Act. So while most congressional DCers are off enjoying their "August recess", I thought it might be helpful to construct a brief history of past federal budget agreements. This history talks about all of the major federal budget agreements from the mid 1980's to the present. This almost 30 year history unfortunately shows that these agreements of the past are almost always changed, ignored or completely re-written before any pain is suffered as a result of their spending restraints being put in place.  Back in the mid 1980's the Balanced Budget & Emergency deficit control act was created by former Sens. Gramm (R-TX), Rudman (R-NH) and Hollings (D-SC). It called for sequesters or across-the-board cuts to control our federal spending. These sequesters were much like the sequester language and is contained in the current Budget Control Act. In the first five years under the GRH bill, two sequesters occurred. The results were:  1.       The amounts of the sequester were changed by future legislation 2.       The sequester was over ridden by subsequent debt agreements  The Gramm/ Rudman/Hollings (GRH #1) was revised two years later because it was deemed unworkable and thus Congress created GRH #2. After three more years of trying to live under GRH #2, Congress usurped the bill with the Budget Enforcement Act.  By the 1990's, Congress was now trying to live under the Budget Enforcement Act. The bill set limits on spending and created a "pay-go" type restraint. This meant that Congress couldn't spend more than it had and therefore had to pay for every program that they created or funded. However, Congress allowed for emergency designations to be included in the list of major programs that were exempted from the "pay-go" rules that the BEA eventually became worthless. However, while the BEA was in place three sequesters occurred. The results were:  1.       Over turned by future legislation (sequestration) 2.       Over turned by future legislation (pay go violation) 3.       Allowed to make the cuts under a small sequestration  By the year 1998, our federal government actually had a surplus of money thanks in part to the dot com economic boom. Spending restraints were ignored or waived by votes in the Senate and House. After all, our federal government had more money than it knew what to do with. The treasury had money coming in from new tax payers, new businesses and state tax revenues were all healthy and happy. Congress began to fund wars, expense natural disasters, create mammoth new government agencies and pass huge spending bills including Medicare part D during the 2000's. All of this spending was being charged to our national credit card.  By the end of 2006 the Democrats controlled Congress again and the out-of-control spending continued. By 2008, under the helm of Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Congress stopped passing budget resolutions. Budget resolutions act as a blue print for spending for Congress. The budget resolution sets up limits and targets for the money Congress spends on behalf of our Federal Government. Without a budget resolution, passing the individual appropriation bills that fund all of our agencies became very difficult. After all, if you don't know what you’re spending limits are, then how can you know when you have to stop spending? Obviously, you can't and don't. The appropriations bills became bundled together into one huge Omnibus appropriations bill. A total funding figure was then negotiated and agreed to by a few leaders in Congress. The Congress as a whole was given a take-it-or-leave-it proposition when it came to funding our federal government via the appropriations process. Obviously, holding hearings and listening to the merits of worthy federal programs never got their "day in court". Rather, anything and everything was fully funded, with increases to boot! The practice of funding small local projects called "earmarks" was put on steroids during this period. Once the practice was accepted it became very commonplace for most members of Congress to request earmarks as an example of their concern for their constituents back home.  In 2009 and 2010 with spending in its hay-day, the Obama administration pushed through Congress a multi-trillion dollar ObamaCare health care bill, an $889 +/- Billion stimulus bill, TARP funding, auto bailouts and much, much more. All of this added to our federal credit card.  By 2010, Congress passed "pay-as-you-go" as part of a debt limit increase bill. This pay-as-you-go provision had so many programs that were exempted, that it too basically had no teeth. Now in Aug. of 2011, the Congress created a 12 member super-Congress tasked to tackle Congress' debt and spending problems.  The DC metro area experienced its first earthquake in over half a decade last week. This writer believes for this country to get back on the right path of spending restraints another earthquake will have to occur. Only this one needs to be a fiscal earthquake in the form of an Amendment to our Constitution calling for our federal government to balance its budget.    Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, elected United States Senate Secretary for the Majority and Minority. Currently she is a senior legislative adviser for Covington & Burling, LLC and is the founder of Gradegov.com