I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1265 

To provide further means of accountability with respect to the United States 

debt and promote fiscal responsibility. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2023 

Mr. SMUCKER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To provide further means of accountability with respect to 

the United States debt and promote fiscal responsibility. 

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Debt Solution and Ac5 countability Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY REPORT TO CON7 GRESS AFTER DEBT LIMIT IS INCREASED. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 31 of 

9 title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 

10 end the following: 


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1 ‘‘§ 3131. Report after debt limit is increased. 

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not more than 60 days after the 

3 limit specified under section 3101, as modified by section 

4 3101A, is increased, the Secretary of the Treasury shall 

5 submit a report to the Committee on Ways and Means 

6 of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Appro7 priations of the House of Representatives, the Committee 

8 on the Budget of the House of Representatives, the Com9 mittee on Finance of the Senate, the Committee on Appro10 priations of the Senate, and the Committee on the Budget 

11 of the Senate consisting of the following: 

12 ‘‘(1) DEBT REPORT.—A report on the state of 

13 the public debt, including— 

14 ‘‘(A) the historical levels of the debt, cur15 rent amount and composition of the debt, and 

16 future projections of the debt; 

17 ‘‘(B) the drivers and composition of future 

18 debt; and 

19 ‘‘(C) how the United States will meet debt 

20 obligations, including principal and interest. 

21 ‘‘(2) STATEMENT OF INTENT.—A detailed ex22 planation of— 

23 ‘‘(A) proposals of the President to reduce 

24 the public debt in the short term (the current 

25 and following three fiscal years), medium term 

26 (approximately five to nine fiscal years), and 


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1 long term (approximately ten to twenty-five fis2 cal years), and proposals of the President to ad3 just the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio; 

4 ‘‘(B) the impact the increased debt limit 

5 will have on future Government spending, debt 

6 service, and the position of the United States 

7 dollar as the international reserve currency; and 

8 ‘‘(C) projections of fiscal health and sus9 tainability of major direct-spending entitlement 

10 programs (including Social Security, Medicare, 

11 and Medicaid). 

12 ‘‘(b) PROGRESS REPORT.—Not more than 180 days 

13 after the report described in subsection (a) is submitted, 

14 the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit a detailed re15 port on the progress of implementing all proposals of the 

16 President described under paragraph (2)(A). 

17 ‘‘(c) PUBLIC ACCESS TO INFORMATION.—The Sec18 retary of the Treasury shall furnish publicly accessible 

19 links on the web page of the Department of the Treasury 

20 to each report submitted under this section. Such links 

21 shall be available for not less than the 6-month period fol22 lowing the date of such submission.’’. 

23 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of analysis 

24 for chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, is amended 


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1 by inserting after the item relating to section 3130 the 

2 following: 

‘‘3131. Report after debt limit is increased.’’. 

3 SEC. 3. ACCESS TO CERTAIN TREASURY DEPARTMENT 

4 DATA. 

5 Not later than thirty days after receipt of a written 

6 request from the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and 

7 Means of the House of Representatives or the Committee 

8 on Finance of the Senate but no more than four times 

9 per fiscal year for each, the Secretary of the Treasury 

10 shall provide to the requesting Chairman financial and 

11 economic data relevant to determining the amount of the 

12 public debt of the United States, including— 

13 (1) cash flow and debt transaction information 

14 used in preparing the Daily Treasury Statement, in15 cluding current balances, receipts, and payments; 

16 (2) operating cash balance projections; and 

17 (3) relevant information regarding any extraor18 dinary measures (as defined under section 3131(d) 

19 of title 31, United States Code) taken to prevent the 

20 public debt from exceeding the limitation imposed by 

21 section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, as 

22 modified by section 3101A of such title. 

Æ 


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