Ryan giving all Republicans a say on spending bills

By , Susan Ferrechio

Published December 20, 2015

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday he is revamping the appropriations process to include input from the entire Republican conference, abandoning the top-down approach traditionally used to write spending bills.

"Because we want to reopen the appropriations process and we want to bring back the power of the purse, I wanted to lay out options in front of the conference," Ryan said Thursday after polling the rank-and-file. "We are asking members how they want to proceed going forward."

"We are going to make this an open process and members are going to have a say on how we move forward," Ryan said.

Congress faces a Dec. 11 deadline to pass an omnibus spending measure to fund the federal government for fiscal 2016. While Congress and President Obama recently agreed to top-line budget numbers for both 2016 and 2017, the House and Senate must agree on appropriations legislation that outlines specifically how the money will be spent.