104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1162

AN ACT

To establish procedures to provide for a deficit rement of discretionary spending limits. duction lock-box and related downward adjust-
104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1162

AN ACT

To establish procedures to provide for a deficit reduction

lock-box and related downward adjustment of discretionary spending limits.

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 ‘‘Deficit Reduction

3 Lock-box Act of 1995’’.

4 SEC. 2. DEFICIT REDUCTION LOCK-BOX LEDGER.

5 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF LEDGER.—Title III of the

6 Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is amended by adding

7 at the end the following new section:

8 ‘‘DEFICIT REDUCTION LOCK-BOX LEDGER

9 ‘‘SEC. 314. (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF LEDGER.—The

10 Director of the Congressional Budget Office (hereinafter

11 in this section referred to as the ‘‘Director’’) shall main12 tain a ledger to be known as the ‘‘Deficit Reduction Lock13 box Ledger’’. The Ledger shall be divided into entries cor14 responding to the subcommittees of the Committees on

15 Appropriations. Each entry shall consist of three parts:

16 the ‘House Lock-box Balance’; the ‘Senate Lock-box Bal17 ance’; and the ‘Joint House-Senate Lock-box Balance’.

18 ‘‘(b) COMPONENTS OF LEDGER.—Each component in

19 an entry shall consist only of amounts credited to it under

20 subsection (c). No entry of a negative amount shall be

21 made.

22 ‘‘(c) CREDIT OF AMOUNTS TO LEDGER.—(1) The Di23 rector shall, upon the engrossment of any appropriation

24 bill by the House of Representatives and upon the engross25 ment of that bill by the Senate, credit to the applicable

26 entry balance of that House amounts of new budget au-
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1 thority and outlays equal to the net amounts of reductions

2 in new budget authority and in outlays resulting from

3 amendments agreed to by that House to that bill.

4 ‘‘(2) The Director shall, upon the engrossment of

5 Senate amendments to any appropriation bill, credit to the

6 applicable Joint House-Senate Lock-box Balance the

7 amounts of new budget authority and outlays equal to—

8 ‘‘(A) an amount equal to one-half of the sum of

9 (i) the amount of new budget authority in the House

10 Lock-box Balance plus (ii) the amount of new budg11 et authority in the Senate Lock-box Balance for that

12 bill; and

13 ‘‘(B) an amount equal to one-half of the sum

14 of (i) the amount of outlays in the House Lock-box

15 Balance plus (ii) the amount of outlays in the Sen16 ate Lock-box Balance for that bill.

17 ‘‘(3) CALCULATION OF LOCK-BOX SAVINGS IN SEN18 ATE.—For purposes of calculating under this section the

19 net amounts of reductions in new budget authority and

20 in outlays resulting from amendments agreed to by the

21 Senate on an appropriation bill, the amendments reported

22 to the Senate by its Committee on Appropriations shall

23 be considered to be part of the original text of the bill.

24 ‘‘(d) DEFINITION.—As used in this section, the term

25 ‘appropriation bill’ means any general or special appro-
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1 priation bill, and any bill or joint resolution making sup2 plemental, deficiency, or continuing appropriations

3 through the end of a fiscal year.’’.

4 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con5 tents set forth in section 1(b) of the Congressional Budget

6 and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is amended by in7 serting after the item relating to section 313 the following

8 new item:

‘‘Sec. 314. Deficit reduction lock-box ledger.’’.

9 SEC. 3. TALLY DURING HOUSE CONSIDERATION.

10 There shall be available to Members in the House of

11 Representatives during consideration of any appropria12 tions bill by the House a running tally of the amendments

13 adopted reflecting increases and decreases of budget au14 thority in the bill as reported.

15 SEC. 4. DOWNWARD ADJUSTMENT OF 602(a) ALLOCATIONS

16 AND SECTION 602(b) SUBALLOCATIONS.

17 (a) ALLOCATIONS.—Section 602(a) of the Congres18 sional Budget Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the

19 end the following new paragraph:

20 ‘‘(5) Upon the engrossment of Senate amend21 ments to any appropriation bill (as defined in section

22 314(d)) for a fiscal year, the amounts allocated

23 under paragraph (1) or (2) to the Committee on Ap24 propriations of each House upon the adoption of the

25 most recent concurrent resolution on the budget for
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1 that fiscal year shall be adjusted downward by the

2 amounts credited to the applicable Joint House-Sen3 ate Lock-box Balance under section 314(c)(2). The

4 revised levels of budget authority and outlays shall

5 be submitted to each House by the chairman of the

6 Committee on the Budget of that House and shall

7 be printed in the Congressional Record.’’.

8 (b) SUBALLOCATIONS.—Section 602(b)(1) of the

9 Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is amended by adding

10 at the end the following new sentence: ‘‘Whenever an ad11 justment is made under subsection (a)(5) to an allocation

12 under that subsection, the chairman of the Committee on

13 Appropriations of each House shall make downward ad14 justments in the most recent suballocations of new budget

15 authority and outlays under subparagraph (A) to the ap16 propriate subcommittees of that committee in the total

17 amounts of those adjustments under section 314(c)(2).

18 The revised suballocations shall be submitted to each

19 House by the chairman of the Committee on Appropria20 tions of that House and shall be printed in the Congres21 sional Record.’’.

22 SEC. 5. PERIODIC REPORTING OF LEDGER STATEMENTS.

23 Section 308(b)(1) of the Congressional Budget Act

24 of 1974 is amended by adding at the end the following

25 new sentence: ‘‘Such reports shall also include an up-to-
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1 date tabulation of the amounts contained in the ledger and

2 each entry established by section 314(a).’’.

3 SEC. 6. DOWNWARD ADJUSTMENT OF DISCRETIONARY

4 SPENDING LIMITS.

5 The discretionary spending limits for new budget au6 thority and outlays for any fiscal year set forth in section

7 601(a)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as

8 adjusted in strict conformance with section 251 of the Bal9 anced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985,

10 shall be reduced by the amounts set forth in the final regu11 lar appropriation bill for that fiscal year or joint resolution

12 making continuing appropriations through the end of that

13 fiscal year. Those amounts shall be the sums of the Joint

14 House-Senate Lock-box Balances for that fiscal year, as

15 calculated under section 602(a)(5) of the Congressional

16 Budget Act of 1974. That bill or joint resolution shall con17 tain the following statement of law: ‘‘As required by sec18 tion 6 of the Deficit Reduction Lock-box Act of 1995, for

19 fiscal year [insert appropriate fiscal year] and each out20 year, the adjusted discretionary spending limit for new

21 budget authority shall be reduced by $ [insert appropriate

22 amount of reduction] and the adjusted discretionary limit

23 for outlays shall be reduced by $ [insert appropriate

24 amount of reduction] for the budget year and each out25 year.’’ Notwithstanding section 904(c) of the Congres-
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1 sional Budget Act of 1974, section 306 of that Act as it

2 applies to this statement shall be waived. This adjustment

3 shall be reflected in reports under sections 254(g) and

4 254(h) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit

5 Control Act of 1985.

6 SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE.

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—This Act shall apply to all appro8 priation bills making appropriations for fiscal year 1996

9 or any subsequent fiscal year.

10 (b) FY96 APPLICATION.—In the case of any appro11 priation bill for fiscal year 1996 engrossed by the House

12 of Representatives after August 4, 1995 and before the

13 date of enactment of this bill, the Director of the Congres14 sional Budget Office, the Director of the Office of Man15 agement and Budget, and the Committees on Appropria16 tions and the Committees on the Budget of the House of

17 Representatives and of the Senate shall, within 10 cal18 endar days after that date of enactment of this Act, carry

19 out the duties required by this Act and amendments made

20 by it that occur after the date this Act was engrossed by

21 the House of Representatives.

22 (c) FY96 ALLOCATIONS.—The duties of the Director

23 of the Congressional Budget Office and of the Committees

24 on the Budget and on Appropriations of the House of Rep25 resentatives pursuant to this Act and the amendments
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1 made by it regarding appropriation bills for fiscal year

2 1996 shall be based upon the revised section 602(a) alloca3 tions in effect on August 4, 1995.

4 (d) DEFINITION.—As used in this section, the term

5 ‘‘appropriation bill’’ means any general or special appro6 priation bill, and any bill or joint resolution making sup7 plemental, deficiency, or continuing appropriations

8 through the end of a fiscal year.

Passed the House of Representatives September 13,

1995.

Attest:

Clerk.