I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1927

To amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to preserve all budget

surpluses until legislation is enacted significantly extending the solvency

of the social security and Medicare trust funds.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 25, 1999

Mr. HOLT (for himself, Mr. LUCAS of Kentucky, and Mr. MOORE) introduced

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Budget,

and in addition to the Committee on Rules, 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 Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to preserve

all budget surpluses until legislation is enacted significantly extending the solvency of the social security and

Medicare trust funds.

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 ‘‘Social Security and

5 Medicare Lock-box Act of 1999’’.
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1 SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

2 It is the purpose of this Act to put social security

3 and Medicare solvency first, by prohibiting the use of so4 cial security surpluses, Medicare surpluses, and any other

5 government surpluses for any purpose other than paying

6 down publicly held debt, until legislation is enacted signifi7 cantly extending the solvency of the social security and

8 Medicare trust funds.

9 SEC. 3. SURPLUSES RESERVED UNTIL SOCIAL SECURITY

10 AND MEDICARE SOLVENCY LEGISLATION IS

11 ENACTED.

12 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 312 of the Congressional

13 Budget Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the end the

14 following new subsection:

15 ‘‘(g) SURPLUSES RESERVED UNTIL SOCIAL SECU16 RITY AND MEDICARE SOLVENCY LEGISLATION IS EN17 ACTED.—

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Until there is both a social

19 security solvency certification and a Medicare sol20 vency certification, it shall not be in order in the

21 House of Representatives or the Senate to

22 consider—

23 ‘‘(A) any concurrent resolution on the

24 budget, or conference report thereon or amend25 ment thereto, that would use any portion of the

26 baseline budget surpluses, or
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1 ‘‘(B) any bill, joint resolution, amendment,

2 motion, or conference report if—

3 ‘‘(i) the enactment of that bill or reso4 lution as reported,

5 ‘‘(ii) the adoption and enactment of

6 that amendment, or

7 ‘‘(iii) the enactment of that bill or res8 olution in the form recommended in that

9 conference report,

10 would use any portion of the baseline budget

11 surpluses.

12 ‘‘(2) BASELINE BUDGET SURPLUSES.—

13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this

14 subsection, the term ‘baseline budget surplus’

15 means the sum of the on- and off-budget sur16 pluses contained in the most recent baseline

17 budget projections made by the Congressional

18 Budget Office at the beginning of the annual

19 budget cycle and no later than the month of

20 March.

21 ‘‘(B) BASELINE BUDGET PROJECTION.—

22 For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term

23 ‘baseline budget projection’ means the projec24 tion described in section 257 of the Balanced

25 Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of
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1 1985 of current year levels of outlays, receipts,

2 and the surplus or deficit into the budget year

3 and future years; except that outlays for pro4 grams subject to discretionary appropriations

5 shall be projected at the lesser of any applicable

6 statutory discretionary limits or the baseline

7 level otherwise defined in such section 257. For

8 purposes of this subsection, the baseline budget

9 projection shall include both on-budget and off10 budget outlays and receipts.

11 ‘‘(3) USE OF PORTION OF THE BASELINE

12 BUDGET SURPLUSES.—For purposes of this sub13 section, a portion of the baseline budget surpluses is

14 used if, relative to the baseline budget projection—

15 ‘‘(A) in the case of legislation affecting

16 revenues, any net reduction in revenues in the

17 current year or the budget year, or over the 5

18 or 10-year estimating periods beginning with

19 the budget year, is not offset by reductions in

20 direct spending,

21 ‘‘(B) in the case of legislation affecting di22 rect spending, any net increase in direct spend23 ing in the current year or the budget year, or

24 over such 5 or 10-year periods, is not offset by

25 increases in revenues, and
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1 ‘‘(C) in the case of an appropriations bill,

2 there is a net increase in discretionary outlays

3 in the current year or the budget year when the

4 discretionary outlays from such bill are added

5 to the discretionary outlays from all previously

6 enacted appropriations bills.

7 ‘‘(4) SOCIAL SECURITY SOLVENCY CERTIFI8 CATION.—For purposes of this subsection, the term

9 ‘social security solvency certification’ means a cer10 tification by the Board of Trustees of the Social Se11 curity Trust Funds that the Federal Old-Age and

12 Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal

13 Disability Insurance Trust Fund are, taken to14 gether, in actuarial balance for the 75-year period

15 utilized in the most recent annual report of such

16 Board of Trustees pursuant to section 201(c)(2) of

17 the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401(c)(2)).

18 ‘‘(5) MEDICARE SOLVENCY CERTIFICATION.—

19 For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘Medicare

20 solvency certification’ means a certification by the

21 Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance

22 Trust Fund that such Trust Fund is in actuarial

23 balance for the 30-year period utilized in the most

24 recent annual report of such Board of Trustees pur25 suant to section 1817(b) of the Social Security Act.’’
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1 (b) SUPER MAJORITY REQUIREMENT.—(1) Section

2 904(c)(1) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is

3 amended by inserting ‘‘312(g),’’ after ‘‘310(d)(2),’’.

4 (2) Section 904(d)(2) of the Congressional Budget

5 Act of 1974 is amended by inserting ‘‘312(g),’’ after

6 ‘‘310(d)(2),’’.

7 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

8 This Act shall take effect upon the date of its enact9 ment and the amendments made by it shall apply only to

10 fiscal year 2000 and subsequent fiscal years.

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