After the Federal Constitutional Court's decision on the supplementary budget for 2021, the schedules for passing the Federal Budget Act for 2024 have become unstable. The Budget Committee had planned to finally discuss the budget law and the budget financing law in the adjustment meeting yesterday (November 16th).
At the beginning of the meeting, a representative of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group stated that due to the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, the parliamentary group did not consider the budget to be ready for adoption and had constitutional concerns, reported the press service “Today in the Bundestag” (hib). For this reason, the Union parliamentary group will initially refrain from submitting its amendments and will mostly abstain from voting. The AfD parliamentary group has put similar concerns on record, but still wants to put forward amendments.
MP Ingo Gädechens (CDU), rapporteur for the defense department, announced that the Union had prepared proposals for the budget discussions that envisage an increase in individual plan 14 by more than ten billion euros. This growth is urgently needed. However, the demand for an increase in the defense budget will not be dropped, but will be put to the vote in budget proposals at the next opportunity - as soon as all the necessary information for further budget discussions is available.
Die Schlussabstimmungen über das Haushaltsgesetz und das Haushaltsfinanzierungsgesetz waren schon in der Sitzung am 15. November vertagt worden, wie hib berichtete. Für Dienstag, 21. November, sei eine von der CDU/CSU-Fraktion beantragte Anhörung angesetzt. Die Schlussabstimmung soll in die Tagesordnung für die Sitzung des Haushaltsausschusses am 23. November aufgenommen werden.
It is not yet clear whether there will be enough time to make the resolution recommendation available to MPs for the second and third reading in the budget week beginning on November 28th.
The following steps until the budget laws become legal are closely timed. The Federal Council must approve the laws before the Federal President can sign them. Both processes are preceded by a consultation or testing phase. The laws must be published in the Federal Law Gazette in December so that they can come into force on time on January 1, 2024.
Gerhard Heiming