II

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 183

To provide that pay for Members of Congress shall be reduced whenever

total expenditures of the Federal Government exceed total receipts in

any fiscal year, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JANUARY 9, 1995

Mr. ABRAHAM introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To provide that pay for Members of Congress shall be reduced whenever total expenditures of the Federal Government exceed total receipts in any fiscal year, and

for other purposes.

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 ‘‘Congressional Fiscal

5 Responsibility Incentive Act’’.
2

•S 183 IS

1 SEC. 2. PROVISIONS RELATING TO MEMBERS’ PAY.

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 601(a) of the Legislative

3 Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31) is amended by

4 adding at the end the following:

5 ‘‘(3)(A) For purposes of this paragraph, any deter6 mination as to whether total receipts of the Federal Gov7 ernment are greater than, less than, or equal to its total

8 expenditures in a fiscal year shall be determined using

9 total public expenditures, respectively, as indicated in the

10 report submitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the

11 Congress under section 331(c) of title 31, United States

12 Code, for such year.

13 ‘‘(B) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2) of this

14 subsection, whenever the total expenditures of the Federal

15 Government exceed its total receipts for a fiscal year, the

16 annual rate of pay for each position under paragraph (1)

17 (A) through (C) shall be reduced by 10 percent, effective

18 as of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after

19 the date as of which Congress receives the report (referred

20 to in subparagraph (A)) relating to such fiscal year.

21 ‘‘(C) Effective as of the first applicable pay period

22 beginning on or after the date as of which Congress re23 ceives a report (referred to in subparagraph (A)) indicat24 ing that total receipts of the Federal Government are

25 greater than or equal to its total expenditures for a fiscal

26 year—
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•S 183 IS

1 ‘‘(i) all reductions under subparagraph (B) then

2 in effect shall be disregarded; and

3 ‘‘(ii) pay for each position under paragraph (1)

4 (A) through (C) shall be restored to the level which

5 would then be in effect for such position if this para6 graph had never been enacted.

7 ‘‘(D) A pay adjustment under subparagraph (B) or

8 (C) shall be made before any other adjustment otherwise

9 scheduled to take effect on the same day for the same posi10 tion.’’.

11 (b) PROCEDURES.—(1) It shall not be in order in ei12 ther the House of Representatives or the Senate to con13 sider any bill or resolution which would increase the rate

14 of basic pay for the Members of Congress (excluding any

15 bill or resolution to which section 225(i) of the Federal

16 Salary Act of 1967 (2 U.S.C. 359) applies) unless that

17 bill or resolution deals with no subject matter other than

18 a pay increase for Members.

19 (2) Any bill or resolution which is subject to para20 graph (1) may be passed or adopted, as the case may be,

21 by the House of Representatives or the Senate only by

22 a vote recorded so as to reflect the vote of each Member

23 voting.

24 (3) Paragraphs (1) and (2) are enacted by Con25 gress—
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•S 183 IS

1 (A) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of

2 the House of Representatives and the Senate, re3 spectively, and such rules shall supersede other rules

4 only to the extent that they are inconsistent there5 with; and

6 (B) with full recognition of the constitutional

7 right of each House to change such rules (so far as

8 relating to such House) at any time, in such man9 ner, and to the same extent as in the case of any

10 other rule of such House.

11 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—(1) This Act and the amend12 ments made by this Act shall—

13 (A) take effect on October 1 of the first fiscal

14 year following the fiscal year in which this Act is en15 acted; and

16 (B) shall first apply to the fiscal year following

17 the fiscal year in which this Act is enacted.

18 (2) This Act shall have no force or effect on and after

19 the date of passage by both Houses of the Congress of

20 a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution

21 that requires that the total budgetary outlays of the Unit22 ed States in any fiscal year may not exceed the total re23 ceipts in such fiscal year.

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