Wouldn't It Be Nice

From the Federal Times:

Momentum has gathered behind the idea of advanced appropriations for the Veterans Affairs Department to the point that a chief supporter of says he would be stunned if anything derails what has become the top priority for veterans groups....

“It would be stunning if Congress or the administration backed away from advanced appropriations now,” [Peter] Dickinson [a lobbyist] said....

The bill passed by the committee, S 423, is called the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act. It authorizes two years of funding for veterans programs instead of the traditional one year, beginning in fiscal 2011. The second year would be advanced funding for medical programs, including health care services, support and facility costs. Advanced funding would be based on projections of costs, including patient load and funding to cover increased medical costs.

The comptroller general, who is the head of the Government Accountability Office, would be responsible for overseeing both how the estimates are made and how the money is spent, a safeguard against low-balling the budget. The report on the adequacy and accuracy of the projects would be made public, allowing for debate over whether proposed funding is sufficient. ...

Two year funding for Social Security would be awfully nice, and so would more or less independent budget advice to help avoid low-ball budget requests. We have certainly seen low-ball budget requests at Social Security.