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(1) Baselines are projections of future spending
if existing policies remain unchanged.
(2) Under baseline assumptions, spending auto-
matically rises with inflation even if such increases
are not mandated under existing law.
(3) Baseline budgeting is inherently biased
against policies that would reduce the projected
growth in spending because such policies are por-
trayed as spending reductions from an increasing
baseline.
(4) The baseline concept has encouraged Con-
gress to abdicate its constitutional obligation to con-
trol the public purse for those programs which are
automatically funded.
(b) SENSE OF HOUSE.—It is the sense of the House
that baseline budgeting should be replaced with a budg-
etary model that requires justification of aggregate fund-
ing levels and maximizes congressional and executive ac-
countability for Federal spending.
SEC. 302. SENSE OF THE HOUSE ON REPAYMENT OF THE
FEDERAL DEBT.
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds that:
(1) The Congress and the President have a
basic moral and ethical responsibility to future gen-
erations to repay the Federal debt, including the
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money borrowed from the Social Security Trust
Fund.
(2) The Congress and the President should
enact a law which creates a regimen for paying off
the Federal debt within 30 years.
(b) SENSE OF THE HOUSE REGARDING PRESIDENT’S
SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—It is the sense of the House
that:
(1) The President’s annual budget submission
to Congress should include a plan for repayment of
Federal debt beyond the year 2002, including the
money borrowed from the Social Security Trust
Fund.
(2) The plan should specifically explain how the
President would cap spending growth at a level one
percentage point lower than projected growth in rev-
enues.
(3) If spending growth were held to a level one
percentage point lower than projected growth in rev-
enues, then the Federal debt could be repaid within
30 years.
SEC. 303. SENSE OF THE HOUSE ON COMMISSION ON LONG-
TERM BUDGETARY PROBLEMS.
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds that—
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(1) achieving a balanced budget by fiscal year
2002 is only the first step necessary to restore our
Nation’s economic prosperity;
(2) the imminent retirement of the baby-boom
generation will greatly increase the demand for gov-
ernment services;
(3) this burden will be borne by a relatively
smaller work force resulting in an unprecedented
intergenerational transfer of financial resources;
(4) the rising demand for retirement and medi-
cal benefits will quickly jeopardize the solvency of
the medicare, social security, and Federal retirement
trust funds; and
(5) the Congressional Budget Office has esti-
mated that marginal tax rates would have to in-
crease by 50 percent over the next 5 years to cover
the long-term projected costs of retirement and
health benefits.
(b) SENSE OF THE HOUSE.—It is the sense of the
House that legislation should be enacted to create a com-
mission to assess long-term budgetary problems, their im-
plications for both the baby-boom generation and tomor-
row’s workforce, and make such recommendations as it
deems appropriate to ensure our Nation’s future prosper-
ity.
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SEC. 304. SENSE OF THE HOUSE ON CORPORATE WELFARE.
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds that the functional
levels and aggregates in this budget resolution assume
that—
(1) the Federal Government supports profit-
making enterprises and industries through billions of
dollars in payments, benefits, and programs;
(2) many of these subsidies do not serve a clear
and compelling public interest;
(3) corporate subsidies frequently provide un-
fair competitive advantages to certain industries and
industry segments; and
(4) at a time when millions of Americans are
being asked to sacrifice in order to balance the
budget, the corporate sector should bear its share of
the burden.
(b) SENSE OF THE HOUSE.—It is the sense of the
House that legislation should be enacted to—
(1) eliminate the most egregious corporate sub-
sidies; and
(2) create a commission to recommend the
elimination of Federal payments, benefits, and pro-
grams which predominantly benefit a particular in-
dustry or segment of an industry, rather than pro-
vide a clear and compelling public benefit, and in-
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clude a fast-track process for the consideration of
those recommendations.
SEC. 305. SENSE OF THE HOUSE ON FAMILY VIOLENCE OP-
TION CLARIFYING AMENDMENT.
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds that:
(1) Domestic violence is the leading cause of
physical injury to women. The Department of Jus-
tice estimates that over 1,000,000 violent crimes
against women are committed by intimate partners
annually.
(2) Domestic violence dramatically affects the
victim’s ability to participate in the workforce. A
University of Minnesota survey reported that one
quarter of battered women surveyed had lost a job
partly because of being abused and that over half of
these women had been harassed by their abuser at
work.
(3) Domestic violence is often intensified as
women seek to gain economic independence through
attending school or training programs. Batterers
have been reported to prevent women from attending
these programs or sabotage their efforts at self-im-
provement.
(4) Nationwide surveys of service providers pre-
pared by the Taylor Institute of Chicago, Illinois,
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document, for the first time, the interrelationship
between domestic violence and welfare by showing
that from 34 percent to 65 percent of AFDC recipi-
ents are current or past victims of domestic violence.
(5) Over half of the women surveyed stayed
with their batterers because they lacked the re-
sources to support themselves and their children.
The surveys also found that the availability of eco-
nomic support is a critical factor in poor women’s
ability to leave abusive situations that threaten them
and their children.
(6) The restructuring of the welfare programs
may impact the availability of the economic support
and the safety net necessary to enable poor women
to flee abuse without risking homelessness and star-
vation for their families.
(7) In recognition of this finding, the House
Committee on the Budget unanimously passed a
sense of Congress amendment on domestic violence
and Federal assistance to the fiscal year 1997 budg-
et resolution. Subsequently, Congress passed the
family violence option amendment to last year’s wel-
fare reform reconciliation bill.
(8) The family violence option gives States the
flexibility to grant temporary waivers from time lim-
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its and work requirements for domestic violence vic-
tims who would suffer extreme hardship from the
application of these provisions. These waivers were
not intended to be included as part of the permanent
20 percent hardship exemption.
(9) The Department of Health and Human
Services has been slow to issue regulations regarding
this provision. As a result, States are hesitant to
fully implement the family violence option fearing it
will interfere with the 20 percent hardship exemp-
tion.
(10) Currently 15 States have opted to include
the family violence option in their welfare plans, and
13 other States have included some type of domestic
violence provisions in their plans.
(b) SENSE OF THE HOUSE.—It is the sense of the
House that—
(1) States should not be subject to any numeri-
cal limits in granting domestic violence good cause
waivers to individuals receiving assistance for all re-
quirements where compliance with such require-
ments would make it more difficult for individuals
receiving assistance to escape domestic violence; and
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(2) any individuals granted a domestic violence
good cause waiver by States should not be included
in the States’ 20 percent hardship exemption.
Æ