II

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1245

To establish procedures to ensure a balanced Federal budget by fiscal year

2002 and to create a tax cut reserve fund to protect revenues generated

by economic growth.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 1, 1997

Mr. BROWNBACK introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred jointly pursuant to the order of August 4, 1977, as modified by

the order of April 11, 1986, to the Committees on the Budget and Governmental Affairs, with instructions that if one committee reports, the

other committee have thirty days to report or be discharged

A BILL

To establish procedures to ensure a balanced Federal budget

by fiscal year 2002 and to create a tax cut reserve

fund to protect revenues generated by economic growth.

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; PURPOSE.

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the

5 ‘‘Economic Growth and Debt Reduction Act’’.

6 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is—

7 (1) to ensure a balanced Federal budget by fis8 cal year 2002;
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1 (2) to create a mechanism to monitor total

2 costs of direct spending programs, and, in the event

3 that actual or projected costs exceed targeted levels,

4 to require the President and Congress to address ad5 justments in direct spending; and

6 (3) to ensure that windfall revenues are used to

7 promote economic growth through lower taxes.

8 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF DIRECT SPENDING AND REVE9 NUE TARGETS.

10 For purposes of this Act—

11 (1) the initial direct spending targets for each

12 of fiscal years 1998 through 2002 shall equal total

13 outlays for all direct spending except net interest as

14 provided in H. Con. Res. 84, the concurrent resolu15 tion on the budget for fiscal year 1998; and

16 (2) the revenue targets are the revenue

17 amounts provided in H. Con. Res. 84, the concur18 rent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1998.

19 SEC. 3. ANNUAL REVIEW OF DIRECT SPENDING AND RE20 CEIPTS BY PRESIDENT.

21 As part of each budget submitted under section

22 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, the President

23 shall provide an annual review of direct spending and re24 ceipts, which shall include—
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1 (1) information on total outlays for programs

2 covered by the direct spending targets, including ac3 tual outlays for the prior fiscal year and projected

4 outlays for the current fiscal year and the 5 succeed5 ing fiscal years; and

6 (2) any amount by which revenues for a budget

7 year and any outyears through fiscal year 2002 ex8 ceed the revenue target in section 2(2).

9 SEC. 4. ECONOMIC GROWTH PROTECTION.

10 (a) INCLUSION ON SCORECARD.—The Office of Man11 agement and Budget shall include the amount of any

12 changes in revenues determined pursuant to section 3(2)

13 as a deficit decrease under the estimates and reports re14 quired by section 252(b) and section 254 of the Balanced

15 Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

16 (b) USE OF REVENUES EXCEEDING TARGET.—Any

17 amount not to exceed the amount of deficit decrease deter18 mined under section 3(2) may only be offset by legislation

19 decreasing revenues.

20 SEC. 5. SPECIAL DIRECT SPENDING MESSAGE BY PRESI21 DENT.

22 (a) TRIGGER.—If the information submitted by the

23 President under section 3(1) indicates—
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1 (1) that actual outlays for direct spending in

2 the prior fiscal year exceeded the applicable direct

3 spending target; or

4 (2) that outlays for direct spending for the cur5 rent or budget year are projected to exceed the ap6 plicable direct spending targets,

7 the President shall include in his budget a special direct

8 spending message meeting the requirements of subsection

9 (b).

10 (b) CONTENTS.—The special direct spending message

11 shall include—

12 (1) an analysis of the variance in direct spend13 ing over the direct spending targets; and

14 (2) the President’s recommendations for elimi15 nating overages, if any, in the prior, current, or

16 budget year.

17 (c) PROPOSED SPECIAL DIRECT SPENDING RESOLU18 TION.—The special direct spending message shall include

19 the text of a special direct spending resolution implement20 ing the President’s recommendations through reconcili21 ation directives instructing the appropriate committees of

22 the House of Representatives and Senate to determine and

23 recommend changes in laws within their jurisdictions. If

24 the President recommends no reductions pursuant to

25 (b)(2)(C), the special direct spending message shall in-
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1 clude the text of a special resolution concurring in the

2 President’s recommendation of no legislative action.

3 SEC. 6. REQUIRED RESPONSE BY CONGRESS.

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

5 House of Representatives or the Senate to consider a con6 current resolution on the budget unless that concurrent

7 resolution fully eliminates the entirety of any overage con8 tained in the applicable report of the President under sec9 tion 5 through reconciliation directives.

10 (b) WAIVER AND SUSPENSION.—This section may be

11 waived or suspended in the Senate only by the affirmative

12 vote of three-fifths of the Members, duly chosen and

13 sworn. This section shall be subject to the provisions of

14 section 258 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Defi15 cit Control Act of 1985.

16 (c) APPEALS.—Appeals in the Senate from the deci17 sions of the Chair relating to any provision of this section

18 shall be limited to 1 hour, to be equally divided between,

19 and controlled by, the appellant and the manager of the

20 bill or joint resolution, as the case may be. An affirmative

21 vote of three-fifths of the Members of the Senate, duly

22 chosen and sworn, shall be required in the Senate to sus23 tain an appeal of the ruling of the Chair on a point of

24 order raised under this section.
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1 SEC. 7. RELATIONSHIP TO BALANCED BUDGET AND EMER2 GENCY DEFICIT CONTROL ACT.

3 Reductions in outlays resulting from legislation re4 ported pursuant to section 6 shall not be taken into ac5 count for purposes of any budget enforcement procedures

6 under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Con7 trol Act of 1985 and the Congressional Budget Act of

8 1974.

9 SEC. 8. ESTIMATING MARGIN.

10 For any fiscal year for which the overage is less than

11 one-half of 1 percent of the direct spending target for that

12 year, the procedures set forth in sections 5 and 6 shall

13 not apply.

14 SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE.

15 This Act shall apply to direct spending targets and

16 revenues for fiscal years 1998 through 2002 and shall ex17 pire at the end of fiscal year 2002.

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