I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 593 

To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 

to modify the discretionary spending limits to take into account savings 

resulting from the reduction in the number of Federal employees. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 8, 2013 

Mr. MCKEON (for himself, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. BROOKS of Alabama, Mr. 

HUNTER, Mr. THORNBERRY, Mrs. WALORSKI, Mr. WILSON of South 

Carolina, Mr. RIGELL, Mr. JONES, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. TURNER, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. PALAZZO, Mrs. NOEM, 

Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. HECK of Nevada, Mr. RUNYAN, Mr. 

SALMON, Mr. BISHOP of Utah, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr. ROGERS of Alabama, 

Mr. COFFMAN, Mr. SHUSTER, and Mr. KLINE) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform, and in addition to the Committees on the Budget, House Administration, and Appropriations, for a period to be subsequently determined 

by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 

within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 to modify the discretionary spending 

limits to take into account savings resulting from the 

reduction in the number of Federal employees. 

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 ‘‘Down Payment to Pro3 tect National Security Act of 2013’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

5 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find6 ings: 

7 (1) On April 13, 2011, in a speech at George 

8 Washington University, the President outlined his 

9 plan to further reduce military spending by $400 bil10 lion through fiscal year 2023. 

11 (2) On August 2, 2011, the President signed 

12 into law, S. 365, the Budget Control Act of 2011, 

13 which reduced discretionary spending and estab14 lished a sequestration effective January 2, 2013, 

15 pursuant to the Balanced Budget and Emergency 

16 Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hol17 lings Act) in the event that additional deficit reduc18 tion could not be found. To this end, the Budget 

19 Control Act of 2011 also established a Joint Select 

20 Committee on Deficit Reduction charged with identi21 fying $1.2 trillion in additional savings by Novem22 ber, 2011. 

23 (3) The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Re24 duction was unable to reach an agreement, which re25 sulted in new spending caps for national defense for 

26 fiscal year 2013. 


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1 (4) On March 29, 2012, the House of Rep2 resentatives passed H. Con. Res. 112, the budget 

3 resolution for fiscal year 2013, which included rec4 onciliation instructions directing House Committees 

5 to craft legislation that would achieve the savings re6 quired to replace the sequestration called for in fis7 cal year 2013, as established by the Budget Control 

8 Act of 2011. 

9 (5) On May 10, 2012, the House of Represent10 atives passed H.R. 5652, the Sequestration Replace11 ment Reconciliation Act of 2012, which would re12 place the $98 billion sequestration of discretionary 

13 spending called for in 2013, as established by the 

14 Budget Control Act of 2011, by making changes in 

15 law to reduce mandatory spending by $310 billion 

16 through fiscal year 2022. 

17 (6) Acting Director of the Office of Manage18 ment and Budget, Jeffery Zients, testified before the 

19 House Armed Services Committee on August 1, 

20 2012, ‘‘Sequestration, by design, is bad policy, and 

21 Congress should pass balanced deficit reduction to 

22 avoid it.’’. 

23 (7) On August 7, 2012, the President signed 

24 into law, H.R. 5872, the Sequestration Trans25 parency Act of 2012, which required the President 


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1 to submit to Congress a detailed report on the im2 plementation of the sequestration for fiscal year 

3 2013 by September 6, 2012. The President failed to 

4 submit the report by the due date and the report did 

5 not provide a detailed assessment of potential im6 pacts of sequestration, stating instead that, ‘‘no 

7 amount of planning can mitigate the significant im8 pact of the sequestration’’. 

9 (8) On September 11, 2012, Bob Woodward re10 leased ‘‘The Price of Politics’’, documenting the ori11 gins of sequestration in the Budget Control Act of 

12 2011 negotiations, stating, ‘‘[Jack] Lew, [Rob] 

13 Nabors, [Gene] Sperling and Bruce Reed, Biden’s 

14 chief of staff, had finally decided to propose using 

15 language from the 1985 Gramm-Rudman-Hollings 

16 deficit reduction law as the model for the trigger. 

17 . . . It would require a sequester with half the cuts 

18 from Defense, and the other half from domestic pro19 grams. There would be no chance the Republicans 

20 would want to pull the trigger and allow the seques21 ter to force massive cuts to Defense.’’. 

22 (9) On October 22, 2012, referring to the up23 coming implementation of sequestration on the U.S. 

24 military, the President said, ‘‘it will not happen’’. 


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1 (10) On January 2, 2013, the President signed 

2 into law, H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act 

3 of 2012, which moved the effective date of the se4 questration to March 1, 2013. Fifty percent of the 

5 required offset was generated through tax increases, 

6 while 25 percent came from additional cuts to de7 fense discretionary spending and the remaining 25 

8 percent from domestic discretionary spending. No 

9 reduction to mandatory spending was included in 

10 H.R. 8. 

11 (11) To date, Congress has enacted and the 

12 President has signed into law $1.1 trillion in discre13 tionary spending cuts, plus an additional $600 bil14 lion in tax increases, with no spending reductions in 

15 mandatory programs. 

16 (12) Should sequestration occur on March 1, 

17 2013, an additional $800 billion in across the board 

18 defense and domestic discretionary cuts will be ap19 plied over a 9-year period, with negligible reductions 

20 in mandatory spending. 

21 (13) On January 14, 2013, all seven members 

22 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed a letter to the 

23 congressional defense committees stating, ‘‘Should 

24 this looming readiness crisis be left unaddressed, we 

25 will have to ground aircraft, return ships to port, 


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1 and stop driving combat vehicles in training. Train2 ing will be reduced by almost half of what we were 

3 planning just three months ago. . . . We will also be 

4 unable to reset and restore the force’s full-spectrum 

5 combat capability after over a decade of hard fight6 ing in Iraq and Afghanistan. . . . Under current 

7 budgetary uncertainty, we are at grave risk of an 

8 imposed mismatch between the size of our Nation’s 

9 military force and the funding required to maintain 

10 its readiness, which will inevitably lead to a hollow 

11 force.’’. 

12 (14) The Joint Chiefs of Staff further stated, 

13 ‘‘We are also now planning for the potential to fur14 lough up to nearly 800,000 defense civilians who are 

15 essential to critical functions like maintenance, intel16 ligence, logistics, contracting, and health care.’’. 

17 (15) On January 28, 2013, the Vice Chairman 

18 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated ‘‘I know of no 

19 other time in history when we have come potentially 

20 down this far, this fast, in the defense budget. . . . 

21 There could be, for the first time in my career, in22 stances where we may be asked to respond to a cri23 sis and we will have to say that we cannot.’’. 

24 (16) On February 5, 2013, the President pro25 posed to further delay the sequestration using the 


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1 same model adopted in H.R. 8, the American Tax2 payer Relief Act of 2012, 50 percent through tax in3 creases, 25 percent through additional cuts to de4 fense discretionary, and 25 percent through addi5 tional cuts to domestic discretionary programs. For 

6 fiscal year 2013, the President’s proposal would re7 sult in an additional $21 billion cut to the military. 

8 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con9 gress that: 

10 (1) Full sequestration is a failed Administration 

11 policy that must be averted. 

12 (2) Without growing the economy and reducing 

13 the rate of growth in mandatory spending programs, 

14 the United States will continue to run deficits, even 

15 if defense and domestic discretionary programs were 

16 defunded in their entirety. 

17 (3) Having enacted defense and domestic dis18 cretionary spending reductions and raised taxes, 

19 truly balanced deficit reduction must include sub20 stantive reductions in mandatory spending. 

21 (4) The President’s short term plan to avert se22 questration lacks balance and would continue to 

23 raise taxes and slash defense and domestic discre24 tionary spending, exacerbating the readiness crisis 


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1 described by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rather than 

2 addressing the drivers of our debt. 

3 (5) Secretary Panetta was correct in his assess4 ment of January 10, 2013 that the civilian furloughs 

5 resulting from full sequestration would also, ‘‘. . . 

6 further harm our readiness and create hardship on 

7 them and their families. In a word—in a word, we 

8 would be forced to . . . hollow out the defense force 

9 of this nation.’’. 

10 (6) Any plan to avert sequestration and provide 

11 additional time for political negotiations on a truly 

12 balanced deficit reduction package must use addi13 tional savings that do not increase the risk to mili14 tary personnel or degrade the readiness or capabili15 ties of our Armed Forces. This goal can be achieved 

16 by providing tools to reshape the Federal civilian 

17 workforce without furloughs. 

18 SEC. 3. REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF FEDERAL EMPLOY19 EES. 

20 (a) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘agency’’ 

21 means an executive agency as defined under section 105 

22 of title 5, United States Code. 

23 (b) DETERMINATION OF NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES.— 

24 Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this 

25 Act, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 


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1 shall determine the number of full-time employees em2 ployed in each agency. The head of each agency shall co3 operate with the Director of the Office of Management 

4 and Budget in making the determinations. 

5 (c) REPLACEMENT HIRE RATE.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—During the period described 

7 under paragraph (2), the head of each agency may 

8 hire no more than 1 employee in that agency for 

9 every 3 employees who leave employment in that 

10 agency. 

11 (2) PERIOD OF REPLACEMENT HIRE RATE.— 

12 Paragraph (1) shall apply to each agency during the 

13 period beginning 60 days after the date of enact14 ment of this Act through the date on which the Di15 rector of the Office of Management and Budget 

16 makes a determination that the number of full-time 

17 employees employed in that agency is 10 percent less 

18 than the number of full-time employees employed in 

19 that agency determined under subsection (a). 

20 (d) WAIVERS.—This section may be waived upon a 

21 determination by the President that— 

22 (1) the existence of a state of war or other na23 tional security concern so requires; or 


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1 (2) the existence of an extraordinary emergency 

2 threatening life, health, public safety, property, or 

3 the environment so requires. 

4 SEC. 4. REDUCTION OF DISCRETIONARY SPENDING LIMITS 

5 TO ACHIEVE SAVINGS FROM FEDERAL EM6 PLOYEE PROVISIONS. 

7 Paragraphs (2) through (10) of section 251(c) of the 

8 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 

9 1985 are amended to read as follows: 

10 ‘‘(2) with respect to fiscal year 2013, for the 

11 discretionary category, $1,043,000,000,000 in new 

12 budget authority; 

13 ‘‘(3) with respect to fiscal year 2014— 

14 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

15 $549,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 

16 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

17 $500,000,000,000 in budget authority; 

18 ‘‘(4) with respect to fiscal year 2015— 

19 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

20 $562,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 

21 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

22 $514,000,000,000 in budget authority; 

23 ‘‘(5) with respect to fiscal year 2016— 

24 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

25 $573,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

2 $523,000,000,000 in budget authority; 

3 ‘‘(6) with respect to fiscal year 2017— 

4 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

5 $586,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 

6 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

7 $534,000,000,000 in budget authority; 

8 ‘‘(7) with respect to fiscal year 2018— 

9 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

10 $599,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 

11 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

12 $546,000,000,000 in budget authority; 

13 ‘‘(8) with respect to fiscal year 2019— 

14 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

15 $612,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 

16 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

17 $559,000,000,000 in budget authority; 

18 ‘‘(9) with respect to fiscal year 2020— 

19 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

20 $626,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 

21 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

22 $571,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 

23 ‘‘(10) with respect to fiscal year 2021— 

24 ‘‘(A) for the security category, 

25 $640,000,000,000 in budget authority; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) for the nonsecurity category, 

2 $583,000,000,000 in budget authority;’’. 

3 SEC. 5. CALCULATION OF TOTAL DEFICIT REDUCTION. 

4 Section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emer5 gency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended— 

6 (1)(A) in paragraph (3)(A), by striking 

7 ‘‘$1,200,000,000,000’’ and inserting 

8 ‘‘$1,091,000,000,000’’ and in paragraph (3)(D), by 

9 striking ‘‘9’’ and inserting ‘‘8’’; and 

10 (B) in paragraph (3)(C), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 

11 after the semicolon, in paragraph (3)(D) by striking 

12 ‘‘; and’’ and inserting a period, and by striking para13 graph (3)(E); 

14 (2) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘On March 1, 

15 2013, for fiscal year 2013, and in’’ and inserting 

16 ‘‘In’’; 

17 (3) in paragraphs (5) and (6), by striking 

18 ‘‘2013’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘2014’’; 

19 and 

20 (4) in paragraph (7), by striking subparagraph 

21 (A) and by striking ‘‘(B) FISCAL YEARS 2014–2021.— 

22 ’’, moving the remaining text 2 ems to the left, and 

23 redesignating clauses (i) and (ii) as subparagraphs 

24 (A) and (B), respectively. 


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1 SEC. 6. TRANSFER AUTHORITY FOR FUNDING OF DEPART2 MENT OF DEFENSE UNDER CONTINUING RES3 OLUTION AND SEQUESTER CONSISTENT 

4 WITH AMOUNTS AUTHORIZED BY NATIONAL 

5 DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL 

6 YEAR 2013. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with subsection (b), 

8 the Secretary of Defense may transfer amounts appro9 priated for the Department of Defense by the Continuing 

10 Appropriations Resolution (Public Law 112–175) among 

11 accounts of the Department of Defense. 

12 (b) TRANSFERS CONSISTENT WITH AMOUNTS AP13 PROPRIATED OR AUTHORIZED.—In the event of any trans14 fers under subsection (a), the total amount in any account 

15 of the Department of Defense that is available for obliga16 tion and expenditure in fiscal year 2013 shall be consistent 

17 with, and may not exceed— 

18 (1) if a regular appropriation Act making ap19 propriations for the Department of Defense for fis20 cal year 2013 is enacted before the date of the 

21 transfer, the level provided for that account for that 

22 fiscal year by applicable provisions of such Act; or 

23 (2) if no such Act is enacted before the date of 

24 the transfer, the amount authorized to be appro25 priated for that account for that fiscal year by appli26 cable provisions of division A of the National DeVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:37 Feb 16, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H593.IH H593

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1 fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (Pub2 lic Law 112–239). 

3 (c) NOTICE TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 15 days 

4 before any transfer under subsection (a), the Secretary of 

5 Defense shall submit to the congressional defense commit6 tees a report setting forth a description of the transfer, 

7 including the amount of the transfer and the accounts 

8 from and to which the funds were transferred. 

9 (d) TRANSFER SUBJECT TO NOTIFICATION RE10 QUIREMENTS.—In addition to the notice required under 

11 subsection (c), a transfer under subsection (a) shall be 

12 subject to the applicable notification requirements for re13 programming in division A of Public Law 112–74. 

14 (e) TRANSFER AUTHORITY.—The transfer authority 

15 provided by subsection (a) is in addition to any other 

16 transfer authority provided by law. 

17 (f) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘congres18 sional defense committees’’ has the meaning given that 

19 term in section 101(a)(16) of title 10, United States Code. 

20 SEC. 7. NO COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENTS FOR MEMBERS 

21 OF CONGRESS. 

22 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no ad23 justment shall be made under section 601(a) of the Legis24 lative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31) (relating 

25 to cost-of-living adjustments for Members of Congress) for 


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1 any fiscal year for which the Congressional Budget Office 

2 determines there is a Federal budget deficit. 

Æ 


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