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posed each year. Other nations, meanwhile, have 
successfully implemented the use of regulatory budg-
eting to control excess regulation and regulatory 
costs. 
(6) Significant steps have been taken already by 
President Trump and the 115th Congress, including 
the imposition of a regulatory pay-as-you-go regimen 
for new and revised regulations by the Trump Ad-
ministration and the enactment of 14 measures 
under the Congressional Review Act that repealed 
regulations promulgated in the final 60 legislative 
days of the 114th Congress. 
(b) POLICY ON FEDERAL REGULATORY BUDGETING 
AND REFORM.—It is the policy of this concurrent resolu-
tion that the House should, in consultation with the pub-
lic, consider legislation that— 
(1) requires the President’s budget submission 
to include an analysis of the costs of complying with 
current and proposed regulations; 
(2) builds the institutional capacity of the Con-
gressional Budget Office to develop a regulatory 
baseline and estimate regulatory costs; 
(3) codifies the Trump Administration’s regu-
latory pay-as-you-go requirements, which require 
agencies to offset the costs of new or revised regula-
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tions with the repeal or modification of existing reg-
ulations; and 
(4) requires Federal agencies to give notice and 
allow for comments on proposed guidance docu-
ments. 
SEC. 504. POLICY STATEMENT ON UNAUTHORIZED APPRO-
PRIATIONS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) Article I of the Constitution vests all legisla-
tive power in Congress. 
(2) Central to the legislative powers of Congress 
is the authorization of appropriations necessary to 
execute the laws that establish agencies and pro-
grams and impose obligations. 
(3) Clause 2 of rule XXI of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives prohibits the consideration 
of appropriations measures that provide appropria-
tions for unauthorized programs. 
(4) In fiscal year 2016, more than $310 billion 
was appropriated for unauthorized programs, span-
ning 256 separate laws. 
(5) Agencies such as the Department of State 
have not been authorized for 15 years. 
(6) The House adopted a requirement for the 
115th Congress, as part of H. Res. 5, that requires 
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each standing committee of the House to adopt an 
authorization and oversight plan that enumerates all 
unauthorized programs and agencies within its juris-
diction that received funding in the prior year, 
among other oversight requirements. 
(b) POLICY ON UNAUTHORIZED APPROPRIATIONS.— 
In the House, it is the policy of this concurrent resolution 
that legislation should be enacted that— 
(1) establishes a schedule for reauthorizing all 
Federal programs on a staggered five-year basis to-
gether with declining spending targets for each year 
a program is not reauthorized according to such 
schedule; 
(2) prohibits the consideration of appropriations 
measures in the House that provide appropriations 
in excess of spending targets specified for such 
measures and ensures that such rule should be 
strictly enforced; and 
(3) limits funding for non-defense or non-secu-
rity-related Federal programs that are not reauthor-
ized according the schedule described in paragraph 
(1). 
SEC. 505. POLICY STATEMENT ON FEDERAL ACCOUNTING. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
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(1) Current accounting methods fail to capture 
and present in a compelling manner the full scope 
of the Federal Government and its fiscal condition. 
(2) Most fiscal analyses produced by the Con-
gressional Budget Office (CBO) are conducted over 
a 10-fiscal year period. The use of generational ac-
counting or a longer time horizon would provide a 
more complete picture of the Federal Government’s 
fiscal condition. 
(3) The Federal budget currently accounts for 
most programs on a cash accounting basis, which 
records revenue and expenses when cash is actually 
paid or received. However, it accounts for loan and 
loan guarantee programs on an accrual basis, which 
records revenue when earned and expenses when in-
curred. 
(4) The Government Accountability Office has 
advised that accrual accounting may be more accu-
rate than cash accounting in estimating the Federal 
Government’s liabilities for insurance and other pro-
grams. 
(5) Accrual accounting under the Federal Cred-
it Reform Act of 1990 (FCRA) understates the risk 
and thus the true cost of some Federal programs, 
including loans and loan guarantees. 
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(6) Fair-value accounting better reflects the 
risk associated with Federal loan and loan guarantee 
programs by using a market based discount rate. 
CBO, for example, uses fair-value accounting to 
measure the cost of the Federal National Mortgage 
Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home 
Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). 
(7) In comparing fair-value accounting to 
FCRA, CBO has concluded that ‘‘adopting a fair- 
value approach would provide a more comprehensive 
way to measure the costs of Federal credit programs 
and would permit more level comparisons between 
those costs and the costs of other forms of Federal 
assistance’’. 
(8) The Department of the Treasury, when re-
porting the principal financial statements of the 
United States entitled Balance Sheet and Statement 
of Operations and Changes in Net Position, may omit 
some of the largest projected Federal Government 
expenses, including social insurance programs. The 
projected expenses of these programs are reported 
by the Department in its Statements of Social Insur-
ance and Changes in Social Insurance Amounts. 
(9) This concurrent resolution directs CBO to 
estimate the costs of Federal credit programs on a 
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that were adopted and continue to provide the foun-
dation for the Federal budget process. 
(2) Over the ensuing 52 years, the Federal 
budget 
process 
has 
undergone 
major 
trans-
formations, including the following: 
(A) Congress asserted its Article I ‘‘power 
of the purse’’ through the Congressional Budget 
Act of 1974 in the form of a congressional 
budget process predicated on the adoption of an 
annual budget resolution setting forth its prior-
ities independent of the executive branch. 
(B) Congress and the President have peri-
odically augmented the President’s budget sub-
mission and the budget resolution by estab-
lishing statutory budget rules and limits en-
forced through sequestration. 
(C) The share of Federal spending that is 
not controlled through the annual appropria-
tions process has ballooned from 32 percent of 
total Federal spending in 1967 to 69 percent in 
2016. 
(D) Activities previously considered the ex-
clusive domain of the Federal Government have 
been fully commercialized, contracted out to the 
private sector, financed through third party ar-
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rangements, or devolved to State and local gov-
ernments. 
(E) Key functions of the Federal Govern-
ment are now funded through user fees rather 
than general revenue, often shielding them from 
congressional control and oversight. 
(F) The Credit Reform Act of 1990 placed 
Federal loans and loan guarantees on an ac-
crual basis. 
(G) Increasing shares of the economy are 
directed towards compliance with Federal regu-
lations, which are not subject to the limitations 
applicable to Federal spending. 
(b) POLICY
ON COMMISSION
ON BUDGET CON-
CEPTS.—It is the policy of this concurrent resolution on 
the budget that legislation should be enacted that estab-
lishes a Commission on Budget Concepts to review and 
revise budget concepts and make recommendations to cre-
ate a more transparent Federal budget process. 
SEC. 507. POLICY STATEMENT ON BUDGET ENFORCEMENT. 
It is the policy of this concurrent resolution that the 
House should— 
(1) adopt an annual budget resolution before 
spending and tax legislation is considered in either 
House of Congress; 
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(2) assess measures for timely compliance with 
budget rules in the House; 
(3) pass legislation to strengthen enforcement 
of the budget resolution; 
(4) comply with the discretionary spending lim-
its set forth in the Balanced Budget and Emergency 
Deficit Control Act of 1985; 
(5) prevent the use of accounting gimmicks to 
offset higher spending; 
(6) modify scoring conventions to encourage the 
commercialization of Federal Government activities 
that can best be provided by the private sector; and 
(7) discourage the use of savings identified in 
the budget resolution as offsets for spending or tax 
legislation. 
SEC. 508. POLICY STATEMENT ON IMPROPER PAYMENTS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) The Government Accountability Office de-
fines improper payments as any reported payment 
that should not have been made or was made in an 
incorrect amount. 
(2) Improper payments totaled $1.2 trillion be-
tween fiscal years 2003 and 2016 with a reported 
Federal Government-wide error rate of 5.1 percent 
in fiscal year 2016. 
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(3) Improper payments increased from $107 
billion in 2012 to $144 billion in 2016. 
(4) The Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicare, 
and Medicaid account for 78 percent of total im-
proper payments, with error rates of 24 percent, 11 
percent, and 10.5 percent, respectively. 
(5) Eight agencies did not report payment esti-
mates for 18 programs that the Comptroller General 
deems susceptible to significant improper payments. 
(b) POLICY ON IMPROPER PAYMENTS.—It is the pol-
icy of this concurrent resolution that an independent com-
mission should be established with the goal of finding tan-
gible solutions to reduce total improper payments by 50 
percent within the next 5 years. The commission should 
also develop a more-stringent system of agency oversight 
to achieve this goal. 
SEC. 509. POLICY STATEMENT ON EXPENDITURES FROM 
AGENCY FEES AND SPENDING. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) Many Federal agencies and organizations 
have permanent authority to collect and spend fees 
and other offsetting collections. 
(2) The Office of Management and Budget esti-
mates the total amount of offsetting fees and collec-
tions to be $513 billion in fiscal year 2017. 
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(3) Agency budget justifications are, in some 
cases, not fully transparent about the amount of 
program activity funded through offsetting collec-
tions or fees. This lack of transparency prevents ef-
fective and accountable Government. 
(b) POLICY ON EXPENDITURES FROM AGENCY FEES 
AND SPENDING.—It is the policy of this concurrent resolu-
tion that the House should reassert its constitutional pre-
rogative to control Federal spending and exercise rigorous 
oversight over Federal agencies. Congress should subject 
all fees paid by the public to Federal agencies to annual 
appropriations or authorizing legislation and a share of 
these proceeds should be reserved for taxpayers in the 
form of deficit reduction. 
SEC. 510. POLICY STATEMENT ON PROMOTING REAL 
HEALTH CARE REFORM. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) Patient-centered health care increases ac-
cess to quality care for all Americans, regardless of 
age, income, or health status. 
(2) States are best equipped to respond to the 
needs of their unique communities. 
(3) The current legal framework encourages 
frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits that increase 
health care costs. 
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