II 

Calendar No. 274 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2182 

To cut, cap, and balance the Federal budget. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 19, 2015 

Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was read the first time 

OCTOBER 20, 2015 

Read the second time and placed on the calendar 

A BILL 

To cut, cap, and balance the Federal budget. 

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 ‘‘Cut, Cap, and Balance 

5 Act of 2015’’. 


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1 TITLE I—CUT 

2 SEC. 101. MODIFICATION OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET 

3 ACT. 

4 Title III of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 

5 (2 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

6 the following: 

7 ‘‘SEC. 316. SPENDING LIMITS. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—It shall not be in order in the 

9 House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any 

10 bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report that 

11 would cause the spending limits as set forth in this section 

12 to be exceeded. 

13 ‘‘(b) LIMITS.—In this section, the term ‘spending 

14 limits’ means for fiscal year 2016— 

15 ‘‘(1) $2,832,215,000,000 in new budget author16 ity; and 

17 ‘‘(2) $2,884,442,000,000 in outlays. 

18 ‘‘(c) ADJUSTMENTS.—After the reporting of a bill or 

19 joint resolution relating to the global war on terrorism de20 scribed in subsection (d), or the offering of an amendment 

21 thereto or the submission of a conference report thereon— 

22 ‘‘(1) the chair of the House or Senate Com23 mittee on the Budget may adjust the spending limits 

24 provided in this section for purposes of congressional 

25 enforcement, the budgetary aggregates in the conVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:00 Oct 20, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2182.PCS S2182

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1 current resolution on the budget most recently 

2 adopted by the Senate and the House of Representa3 tives, and allocations pursuant to section 302(a) of 

4 the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 

5 633(a)), by the amount of new budget authority in 

6 that measure for that purpose and the outlays flow7 ing therefrom; and 

8 ‘‘(2) following any adjustment under paragraph 

9 (1), the House or Senate Committee on Appropria10 tions may report appropriately revised suballocations 

11 pursuant to section 302(b) of the Congressional 

12 Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633(b)) to carry out 

13 this subsection. 

14 ‘‘(d) GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM.—If a bill or joint 

15 resolution is reported making appropriations for fiscal 

16 year 2016 that designates amounts for Overseas Contin17 gency Operations/Global War on Terrorism for purposes 

18 of section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and 

19 Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 

20 901(b)(2)(A)), the allowable adjustments provided for in 

21 subsection (c) for fiscal year 2016 shall not exceed 

22 $58,000,000,000 in budget authority and the outlays flow23 ing therefrom. 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 317. CERTAIN SPENDING LIMITS. 

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—It shall not be in order in the 

3 House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any 

4 bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report that 

5 includes any provision that would cause total spending, ex6 cept as excluded in subsection (b), to exceed the limits 

7 specified in section 316(b). 

8 ‘‘(b) EXEMPT FROM SPENDING LIMITS.—Spending 

9 for the following functions is exempt from the limits speci10 fied in section 316 (b): 

11 ‘‘(1) Social Security, function 650. 

12 ‘‘(2) Medicare, function 570. 

13 ‘‘(3) Veterans Benefits and Services, function 

14 700. 

15 ‘‘(4) Net Interest, function 900. 

16 ‘‘(5) Military personnel accounts within sub17 functional category 051.’’. 

18 SEC. 102. STATUTORY ENFORCEMENT OF SPENDING CAPS 

19 THROUGH SEQUESTRATION. 

20 Title III of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 

21 (2 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) is amended by inserting after sec22 tion 317, as added by section 101 of this Act, the fol23 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 318. ENFORCEMENT OF DISCRETIONARY AND DIRECT 

2 SPENDING CAPS. 

3 ‘‘(a) IMPLEMENTATION.—The sequesters shall be im4 plemented as follows: 

5 ‘‘(1) DISCRETIONARY SPENDING IMPLEMENTA6 TION.—For the discretionary limits in section 316, 

7 pursuant to section 251(a) of the Balanced Budget 

8 and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 

9 U.S.C. 901(a)) with each category sequestered sepa10 rately. 

11 ‘‘(2) DIRECT SPENDING IMPLEMENTATION.— 

12 (A) The sequestration to enforce this section for di13 rect spending shall be implemented pursuant to sec14 tion 254 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency 

15 Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 904). 

16 ‘‘(B) Section 255 of the Balanced Budget and 

17 Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 905) shall not apply 

18 to this section, except that payments for military 

19 personnel accounts (within subfunctional category 

20 051), TRICARE for Life, Medicare (functional cat21 egory 570), military retirement, Social Security 

22 (functional category 650), veterans (functional cat23 egory 700), net interest (functional category 900), 

24 and discretionary appropriations shall be exempt. 

25 ‘‘(b) MODIFICATION OF PRESIDENTIAL ORDER.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—At any time after the Di2 rector of the Office of Management and Budget 

3 issues a sequestration report under subsection (a) 

4 and section 319(c) the provisions of section 258A of 

5 the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 

6 Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 907b) shall apply to the con7 sideration in the House of Representatives and the 

8 Senate of a bill or joint resolution to override the 

9 order if the bill or joint resolution, as enacted, would 

10 achieve the same level of reductions in new budget 

11 authority and outlays for the applicable fiscal year 

12 as set forth in the order. 

13 ‘‘(2) POINT OF ORDER.—In the House of Rep14 resentatives or Senate, it shall not be in order to 

15 consider a bill or joint resolution which waives, 

16 modifies, or in any way alters a sequestration order 

17 unless the chair of the House or Senate Committee 

18 on the Budget certifies that the measure achieves 

19 the same levels of reductions in new budget author20 ity and outlays for the applicable year as set forth 

21 in the order.’’. 


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1 TITLE II—CAP 

2 SEC. 201. LIMIT ON TOTAL SPENDING. 

3 (a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 250(c) of the Balanced 

4 Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 

5 U.S.C. 900(c)) is amended— 

6 (1) by striking paragraph (4); 

7 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (5) through 

8 (21) as paragraphs (4) through (20), respectively; 

9 and 

10 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

11 ‘‘(21) The term ‘GDP’, for any fiscal year, 

12 means the gross domestic product during such fiscal 

13 year consistent with Department of Commerce defi14 nitions.’’. 

15 (b) CAPS.—Title III of the Congressional Budget Act 

16 of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) is amended adding after 

17 section 318, as added by section 102 of this Act, the fol18 lowing: 

19 ‘‘SEC. 319. ENFORCING GDP OUTLAY LIMITS. 

20 ‘‘(a) ENFORCING GDP OUTLAY LIMITS.—In this sec21 tion, the term ‘GDP outlay limit’ means an amount, as 

22 estimated by the Director of the Office of Management 

23 and Budget, equal to— 

24 ‘‘(1) projected GDP for that fiscal year as esti25 mated by OMB, multiplied by 


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1 ‘‘(2)(A) 19.9 percent for fiscal year 2016; 

2 ‘‘(B) 19.52 percent for fiscal year 2017; 

3 ‘‘(C) 19.14 percent for fiscal year 2018; 

4 ‘‘(D) 18.76 percent for fiscal year 2019; 

5 ‘‘(E) 18.38 percent for fiscal year 2020; 

6 ‘‘(F) 18 percent for fiscal year 2021; 

7 ‘‘(G) 18 percent for fiscal year 2021; 

8 ‘‘(H) 18 percent for fiscal year 2022; 

9 ‘‘(I) 18 percent for fiscal year 2023; 

10 ‘‘(J) 18 percent for fiscal year 2024; and 

11 ‘‘(K) 18 percent for fiscal year 2025. 

12 ‘‘(b) GDP OUTLAY LIMIT AND OUTLAYS.— 

13 ‘‘(1) DETERMINING THE GDP OUTLAY LIMIT.— 

14 The Director of the Office of Management and 

15 Budget shall establish in the President’s budget the 

16 GDP outlay limit for the budget year. 

17 ‘‘(2) TOTAL FEDERAL OUTLAYS.—In this sec18 tion, total Federal outlays shall include all on-budget 

19 and off-budget outlays. 

20 ‘‘(c) SEQUESTRATION.—The sequestration to enforce 

21 this section shall be implemented pursuant to section 254 

22 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 

23 Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 904). 

24 ‘‘(d) EXEMPT PROGRAMS.—Section 255 of the Bal25 anced Budget and Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 905) 


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1 shall not apply to this section, except that payments for 

2 military personnel accounts (within subfunctional category 

3 051), TRICARE for Life, Medicare (functional category 

4 570), military retirement, Social Security (functional cat5 egory 650), veterans (functional category 700), and net 

6 interest (functional category 900) shall be exempt.’’. 

7 SEC. 202. ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES UNDER THE CON8 GRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT OF 1974. 

9 (a) ENFORCEMENT.—Title III of the Congressional 

10 Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) is amended 

11 by adding after section 319, as added by section 201 of 

12 this Act, the following: 

13 ‘‘SEC. 320. ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES. 

14 ‘‘It shall not be in order in the House of Representa15 tives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, 

16 amendment, or conference report that would cause the 

17 most recently reported current GDP outlay limits set forth 

18 in section 319 to be exceeded.’’. 

19 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents in 

20 section 1(b) of the Congressional Budget and Impound21 ment Control Act of 1974 is amended by adding after the 

22 item relating to section 315 the following: 

‘‘Sec. 316. Spending limits. 

‘‘Sec. 317. Certain spending limits. 

‘‘Sec. 318. Enforcement of discretionary and direct spending caps. 

‘‘Sec. 319. Enforcing GDP outlay limits. 

‘‘Sec. 320. Enforcement procedures.’’. 


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1 TITLE III—BALANCE 

2 SEC. 301. REQUIREMENT THAT A BALANCED BUDGET 

3 AMENDMENT BE SUBMITTED TO STATES. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury 

5 shall not exercise the additional borrowing authority in 

6 subsequent legislation until the Archivist of the United 

7 States transmits to the States a balanced budget amend8 ment to the Constitution that— 

9 (1) requires that total outlays not exceed total 

10 receipts; 

11 (2) contains a spending limitation as a percent12 age of GDP; and 

13 (3) requires that tax increases be approved by 

a 2 14 ⁄3 vote in both Houses of Congress for their ratifi15 cation. 

16 (b) POINT OF ORDER.—It shall not be in order in 

17 the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider 

18 any bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report 

19 that would cause the Secretary of the Treasury to exercise 

20 additional borrowing authority described in subsection (a) 

21 until such time as the Archivist of the United States 

22 transmits to the States an amendment to the Constitution 

23 described in subsection (a). 


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asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
Calendar No. 274 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2182 

A BILL 

To cut, cap, and balance the Federal budget. 

OCTOBER 20, 2015 

Read the second time and placed on the calendar 


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