IIB 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3578 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 6, 2012 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget 

AN ACT 

To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 

Control Act of 1985 to reform the budget baseline. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Baseline Reform Act 

3 of 2012’’. 

4 SEC. 2. THE BASELINE. 

5 Section 257 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency 

6 Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended to read as follows: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 257. THE BASELINE. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) For any fiscal year, the base9 line refers to a projection of current-year levels of new 

10 budget authority, outlays, or receipts and the surplus or 

11 deficit for the current year, the budget year, and the ensu12 ing nine outyears based on laws enacted through the appli13 cable date. 

14 ‘‘(2) The baselines referred to in paragraph (1) shall 

15 be prepared annually. 

16 ‘‘(b) DIRECT SPENDING AND RECEIPTS.—For the 

17 budget year and each outyear, estimates for direct spend18 ing in the baseline shall be calculated as follows: 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Laws providing or creating 

20 direct spending and receipts are assumed to operate 

21 in the manner specified in those laws for each such 

22 year and funding for entitlement authority is as23 sumed to be adequate to make all payments required 

24 by those laws. 

25 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—(A)(i) No program estab26 lished by a law enacted on or before the date of enVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:46 Feb 07, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3578.RFS H3578

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1 actment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 with 

2 estimated current year outlays greater than 

3 $50,000,000 shall be assumed to expire in the budg4 et year or the outyears. The scoring of new pro5 grams with estimated outlays greater than 

6 $50,000,000 a year shall be based on scoring by the 

7 Committees on the Budget or OMB, as applicable. 

8 OMB, CBO, and the Committees on the Budget 

9 shall consult on the scoring of such programs where 

10 there are differences between CBO and OMB. 

11 ‘‘(ii) On the expiration of the suspension of a 

12 provision of law that is suspended under section 171 

13 of Public Law 104–127 and that authorizes a pro14 gram with estimated fiscal year outlays that are 

15 greater than $50,000,000, for purposes of clause (i), 

16 the program shall be assumed to continue to operate 

17 in the same manner as the program operated imme18 diately before the expiration of the suspension. 

19 ‘‘(B) The increase for veterans’ compensation 

20 for a fiscal year is assumed to be the same as that 

21 required by law for veterans’ pensions unless other22 wise provided by law enacted in that session. 

23 ‘‘(C) Excise taxes dedicated to a trust fund, if 

24 expiring, are assumed to be extended at current 

25 rates. 


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1 ‘‘(D) If any law expires before the budget year 

2 or any outyear, then any program with estimated 

3 current year outlays greater than $50,000,000 that 

4 operates under that law shall be assumed to con5 tinue to operate under that law as in effect imme6 diately before its expiration. 

7 ‘‘(3) HOSPITAL INSURANCE TRUST FUND.— 

8 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the re9 ceipts and disbursements of the Hospital Insurance 

10 Trust Fund shall be included in all calculations re11 quired by this Act. 

12 ‘‘(c) DISCRETIONARY SPENDING.—For the budget 

13 year and each of the nine ensuing outyears, the baseline 

14 shall be calculated using the following assumptions regard15 ing all amounts other than those covered by subsection 

16 (b): 

17 ‘‘(1) ESTIMATED APPROPRIATIONS.—Budgetary 

18 resources other than unobligated balances shall be at 

19 the level provided for the budget year in full-year ap20 propriation Acts. If for any account a full-year ap21 propriation has not yet been enacted, budgetary re22 sources other than unobligated balances shall be at 

23 the level available in the current year. 

24 ‘‘(2) CURRENT-YEAR APPROPRIATIONS.—If, for 

25 any account, a continuing appropriation is in effect 


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1 for less than the entire current year, then the cur2 rent-year amount shall be assumed to equal the 

3 amount that would be available if that continuing 

4 appropriation covered the entire fiscal year. If law 

5 permits the transfer of budget authority among 

6 budget accounts in the current year, the current7 year level for an account shall reflect transfers ac8 complished by the submission of, or assumed for the 

9 current year in, the President’s original budget for 

10 the budget year. 

11 ‘‘(d) UP-TO-DATE CONCEPTS.—In calculating the 

12 baseline for the budget year or each of the nine ensuing 

13 outyears, current-year amounts shall be calculated using 

14 the concepts and definitions that are required for that 

15 budget year. 

16 ‘‘(e) ASSET SALES.—Amounts realized from the sale 

17 of an asset shall not be included in estimates under section 

18 251, 251A, 252, or 253 of this part or section 5 of the 

19 Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 if that sale would 

20 result in a financial cost to the Government as determined 

21 pursuant to scorekeeping guidelines.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. ADDITIONAL CBO REPORT TO BUDGET COMMIT2 TEES. 

3 Section 202(e) of the Congressional Budget Act of 

4 1974 is amended by adding at the end the following new 

5 paragraphs: 

6 ‘‘(4)(A) After the President’s budget submis7 sion under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States 

8 Code, in addition to the baseline projections, the Di9 rector shall submit to the Committees on the Budget 

10 of the House of Representatives and the Senate a 

11 supplemental projection assuming extension of cur12 rent tax policy for the fiscal year commencing on 

13 October 1 of that year with a supplemental projec14 tion for the 10 fiscal-year period beginning with that 

15 fiscal year, assuming the extension of current tax 

16 policy. 

17 ‘‘(B) For the purposes of this paragraph, the 

18 term ‘current tax policy’ means the tax policy in 

19 statute as of December 31 of the current year as20 suming— 

21 ‘‘(i) the budgetary effects of measures ex22 tending the Economic Growth and Tax Relief 

23 Reconciliation Act of 2001; 

24 ‘‘(ii) the budgetary effects of measures ex25 tending the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Rec26 onciliation Act of 2003; 


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1 ‘‘(iii) the continued application of the alter2 native minimum tax as in effect for taxable 

3 years beginning in 2011 pursuant to title II of 

4 the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reau5 thorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, as6 suming that for taxable years beginning after 

7 2011 the exemption amount shall equal— 

8 ‘‘(I) the exemption amount for taxable 

9 years beginning in 2011, as indexed for in10 flation; or 

11 ‘‘(II) if a subsequent law modifies the 

12 exemption amount for later taxable years, 

13 the modified exemption amount, as indexed 

14 for inflation; and 

15 ‘‘(iv) the budgetary effects of extending the 

16 estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer 

17 tax provisions of title III of the Tax Relief, Un18 employment Insurance Reauthorization, and 

19 Job Creation Act of 2010. 

20 ‘‘(5) On or before July 1 of each year, the Di21 rector shall submit to the Committees on the Budget 

22 of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the 

23 Long-Term Budget Outlook for the fiscal year comVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:46 Feb 07, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3578.RFS H3578

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1 mencing on October 1 of that year and at least the 

2 ensuing 40 fiscal years.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives February 3, 

2012. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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