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Congress and Money: Budgeting, Spending and Taxing. By Schick Allen. (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1980. Pp. xiii + 604. $27.50.)

Allen Schick is one of the most knowledgeable observers of the congressional budget process currently writing on the subject. Students of the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act will discover a goldmine of information and insight in Congress and Money. A participant in budget reform in Congress from the formulation stage in the early 1970s, Schick provides a detailed examination of taxing, spending, and the budget process. This is a book that demonstrates great knowledge and effort. Yet despite the obvious merit of the study, readers may find it disappointing. In the wealth of detail, one finds a poverty of theory. The insider's perspective that provides fascinating examples may have hampered the development of a broader analytical focus that could have made this work a classic. "The primary focus," the author tells us, "is on how Congress makes money decisions" (p. 10). The centers of attention are the legislative participants—the budget, appropriations, and tax-writing committees, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and committee staffs, and the legislators themselves. The objective is to compare current behavior to pre-Budget Act practices, and to examine the patterns of conflict and cooperation that have emerged. Schick's methodology was a scrupulous review of the written record supplemented with interviews of some 90 participants. Part 1 reviews the "seven year budget war" of the late 1960s and early 1970s that convinced Congress that budget reform was necessary. Schick carefully records the legislative history of the Budget Act and the bargaining and balancing of interests that took place in 1973 and 1974. The Budget Committees themselves are the subject of the fourth chapter which paints the political landscape of the committees, considers the members and leaders, and assesses the rather ambivalent power of the committees. This part concludes with an examination of the CBO and Budget Committee staffs which have greatly expanded the analytic capability and independence of Congress. The treatment of the strengths and weaknesses of CBO is particularly excellent. The making and enforcing of budget resolutions is the subject of part 2. The four chapters that constitute this section focus on the claimants for resources within the Congress, and the general trends of accommodation found in the actions of the Budget Committees. Chapter 7 tells the story of the politics of resolution-writing in the House and Senate. In the tumultuous House, the Republicans almost unanimously say "no," every vote tests the coalition-building skills of the leadership, and several resolutions failed to pass. In contrast, the process Schick details for the Senate is one of cooperation, bipartisanship, "going along." Resolution-writing is followed by the problem of enforcement—holding the line on additional claims.