RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

"Raze the Debt Ceiling," op-ed with Phil Joyce, in the Baltimore Sun, December 19, 2012.

“Strengthening the Federal Budget Process,” with Paul Posner, Steve Redburn, and Phil Joyce, National Academy of Public Administration and American Society for Public Administration, July 12, 2012.  Complete memos are here:  http://www.memostoleaders.org/sites/default/files/RevisedBudgetFinal.pdf     Condensed version in The Public Manager, December 15, 2012.  ( This article is reprinted with permission from the Volume 41 Issue 4 of The Public Manager © 2012, The Bureaucrat, Inc.)

“The Mechanisms of Federal Budget Process Reform,” presented at the annual conference of the Western Economic Association, San Francisco, July 1, 2012.

“The Remarkable Case of Disappearing Earmarks in the United States: The Limits of Transparency Reforms,” presented at the 2012 conference of the International Public Management Network: Innovations in Public Management for Combating Corruption, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 28, 2012.  Winner of Frieder Naschold prize.

Miscellaneous media commentary on Politifact re Gingrich, Obama, Lew; NPR on CRs; WYPR on MD budget; Baltimore Sun on tax increases.

"Executive Budgeting in the States: Evaluating a Reform," with Irene S. Rubin.  Prepared for the annual conference of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, Washington, D.C., October 13-15, 2011.

"Path Dependence and the Federal Budget Process: Explanation and Prescription."  Prepared for the annual research conference of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, Washington, September 3, 2011. Sponsored by the Practicing Politics Working Group and the Public Administration Section.

"The Executive Budget in the Federal Government: The First Century and Beyond," with Irene S. Rubin.  This is an electronic version of an article published in Public Administration Review, 71:3, May/June 2011, 334-344, copyright 2011 American Society for Public Administration.  See also the responses that follow in this issue from Matt Andrews and Joachim Wehner.

"Several Modest Proposals," comments prepared for Thursday's Child panel on "Children and Federal-State Budget Tradeoffs," Urban Institute, March 17, 2011.  Video

Correcting Michelle Bachmann in PolitiFact.com, March 8, 2011

Media commentary on possible shutdown in WaPo, Slate, Reuters, BusinessWeek, NPR, AFP

A blast from the past, which for no good reason may now be timely: "Late Appropriations and Government Shutdowns: Frequency, Causes, Consequences, and Remedies," Public Budgeting and Finance, Fall 1997.

MD budget/election commentary pre-election, January 2011.

Budget Questions for the Maryland Election and Beyond, September 17, 2010

Comments for American Political Science Association panel on "Hard Times and Ph.D.s: The Political Science Job Market and Non-Academic Careers," Washington, D.C., September 2, 2010.

Paper for the 6th Transatlantic Dialogue between ASPA and EGPA, Oceans Apart: Approaches to Educating Public Financial Managers about Political Institutions, Siena, Italy, June 24, 2010.

MarylandReporter.com commentary on Maryland budget polling

"Prospects for a Sustainable Budgetary Policy in the United States", International Conference on Financial Crisis and Macroeconomic Control, sponsored by the School of Public Finance and Taxation, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, China, October 17, 2009.

Slides for "The 'Missing Middle' of the Federal Budget Process: Priority-Setting," to Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, September 24, 2009, Washington, D.C.

Revised version of presentation to Eastern States Legislative Fiscal Officers: "What Can Academics Teach Practitioners About Budgeting?"

Op-ed (or here) in Baltimore Sun on educating the public about the state's budget, September 8, 2009

Presentation to Peterson-Pew Budget Reform Commission on structural reform of the federal budget process, April 1, 2009 (no foolin'!)

Op-ed on using a deal on earmarks to encourage timely passage of appropriations bills, Roll Call, Tuesday March 24, 2009, p. A4.

Presentation to Peterson-Pew Budget Reform Commission on their agenda, February 20. 2009

Presentation on Capitol Hill: "Can the Budget Process Be Fixed?," sponsored by the Mercatus Center, 1/22/09.

"The 'Ball of Confusion' in Federal Budgeting: A Shadow Agenda for Deliberative Reform of the Budget Process," Public Administration Review, 69:2, March 2009, pp. 211-223.  Copyright American Society for Public Administration, published by Blackwell Publishing.  Drawn from the plenary presentation at the annual conference of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, Chicago, IL, October 24, 2008.

"Governance Ideas for and from the 'Knowledge Banks'," book review essay in Public Administration Review, 69: January 2009, pp. 167-171.

Increasing Budgetary Democracy and Flexibility, part of an exchange on the effects of the budget powers set out in the Maryland Constitution, from Maryland Policy Reports, Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute, June 2008.

Testimony on two Maryland budget process bills, February 2008.

The Remarkable Case of the Disappearing (?) Earmarks, presented at the annual conference of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, 2007.

Commentary (invited), on Fred Thompson and Bruce L. Gates, “Betting on the Future with a Cloudy Crystal Ball? Revenue Forecasting, Financial Theory, and Budgets--An Expanded Treatment,” Public Administration Review, Theory to Practice, September/October 2007, pp. 74-80.

Addressing Maryland’s Structural Deficit through Better Performance Budgeting and Priority-Setting, UMBC Policy Brief 5, June 2007.

"European Budget Institutions", Public Administration Review, 2006, 66:6, November, 935-938. Copyright American Society for Public Administration, published by Blackwell Publishing.

“The Return of Budget Deficits in the United States”, Public Administration Review, 2006, 66: 2, March, pp. 294-7.  Copyright American Society for Public Administration, published by Blackwell Publishing.

Congressional Budgeting at Age 30: Is It Worth Saving?", with Philip G. Joyce.  Public Budgeting and Finance, 2005, Silver Anniversary Issue, pp. 68-82.  Copyright Public Financial Publications, Inc., published by Blackwell Publishing.

See also at original source book review essay: Jerry L. McCaffery and L.R. Jones, Budgeting and Financial Management for National Defense, Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 2004; and ibid, Budgeting and Financial Management in the Federal Government, 2001; for International Public Management Journal, 8: 2, pp. 289-292.


Remarks and slides for "It's Time for a Second Commission on Budget Concepts," presented at the Third Annual Congressional Budget Office Director's Conference, Russell Senate Caucus Room, September 14, 2004

Testimony on SB 381, sponsor Senator Jones, Managing for Results and the budget prioritization process in Maryland, March 23, 2004

Testimony on HB 1247, sponsor Delegate Branch (crossfile SB 370, sponsor Senator Hogan), Constitutional Amendment on Additions to the Operating Budget, House Appropriations Committee, Maryland General Assembly, March 9, 2004

How Can Maryland's Budget Process Be Improved?, coauthored with Thomas S. Pilkerton, September 2003, Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research.  Accompanying spreadsheet of Oregon-Style Measures for Maryland.

Budgeting during the Clinton Presidency, coauthored with Philip G. Joyce, Public Budgeting and Finance, 21: Spring 2001, pp. 1-21. (Posted to this page with the permission of Blackwell Publishers)

Testimony before the House Rules Committee on biennial budgeting, March 16, 2000.

 

“Legislative Budgeting in Mexico: Aspirations and Choices” for the Conference on Reform of the State: Budgeting and Public Spending in Mexico, January 27, 2000, sponsored by Centro de Investigatión y Docencia Económicas and Camara de Diputados, Government of Mexico.

Comments at the Opening Plenary of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, October 7, 1999, Washington, D.C., on the topic of "Federal Budget Structure and Concepts for a New Millenium: Revolt, Reform, or Renewal?"

Paper written for the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Mary Lasker Trust: "Federal Financing for Medical Research Through Trust Funds and Entitlements", February 15, 1999.

Regulatory Budgeting: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come?  Policy Sciences, 31: December 1998, pp. 371-384.

Is There a Key to the Normative Budgeting Lock?  Policy Sciences, 29: 1996,  pp. 171-188.

Handbook of Government Budgeting

Strategic Budgeting


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