I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3186 
To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 
to reform the budget baseline. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 23, 2015 
Mr. WOODALL (for himself and Mr. GOHMERT) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Budget 
A BILL 
To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
Control Act of 1985 to reform the budget baseline. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Baseline Reform Act 
of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. THE BASELINE. 
Section 257 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency 
Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended to read as follows: 
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‘‘SEC. 257. THE BASELINE. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) For any fiscal year, the base-
line refers to a projection of current-year levels of new 
budget authority, outlays, or receipts and the surplus or 
deficit for the current year, the budget year, and the ensu-
ing nine outyears based on laws enacted through the appli-
cable date. 
‘‘(2) The baselines referred to in paragraph (1) shall 
be prepared annually. 
‘‘(b) DIRECT SPENDING AND RECEIPTS.—For the 
budget year and each outyear, estimates for direct spend-
ing in the baseline shall be calculated as follows: 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Laws providing or creating 
direct spending and receipts are assumed to operate 
in the manner specified in those laws for each such 
year and funding for entitlement authority is as-
sumed to be adequate to make all payments required 
by those laws. 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—(A)(i) No program estab-
lished by a law enacted on or before the date of en-
actment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 with 
estimated 
current 
year 
outlays 
greater 
than 
$50,000,000 shall be assumed to expire in the budg-
et year or the outyears. The scoring of new pro-
grams 
with 
estimated 
outlays 
greater 
than 
$50,000,000 a year shall be based on scoring by the 
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Committees on the Budget or OMB, as applicable. 
OMB, CBO, and the Committees on the Budget 
shall consult on the scoring of such programs where 
there are differences between CBO and OMB. 
‘‘(ii) On the expiration of the suspension of a 
provision of law that is suspended under section 171 
of Public Law 104–127 and that authorizes a pro-
gram with estimated fiscal year outlays that are 
greater than $50,000,000, for purposes of clause (i), 
the program shall be assumed to continue to operate 
in the same manner as the program operated imme-
diately before the expiration of the suspension. 
‘‘(B) The increase for veterans’ compensation 
for a fiscal year is assumed to be the same as that 
required by law for veterans’ pensions unless other-
wise provided by law enacted in that session. 
‘‘(C) Excise taxes dedicated to a trust fund, if 
expiring, are assumed to be extended at current 
rates. 
‘‘(D) If any law expires before the budget year 
or any outyear, then any program with estimated 
current year outlays greater than $50,000,000 that 
operates under that law shall be assumed to con-
tinue to operate under that law as in effect imme-
diately before its expiration. 
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‘‘(3) HOSPITAL
INSURANCE
TRUST
FUND.— 
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the re-
ceipts and disbursements of the Hospital Insurance 
Trust Fund shall be included in all calculations re-
quired by this Act. 
‘‘(c) DISCRETIONARY SPENDING.—For the budget 
year and each of the nine ensuing outyears, the baseline 
shall be calculated using the following assumptions regard-
ing all amounts other than those covered by subsection 
(b): 
‘‘(1) ESTIMATED APPROPRIATIONS.—Budgetary 
resources other than unobligated balances shall be at 
the level provided for the budget year in full-year ap-
propriation Acts. If for any account a full-year ap-
propriation has not yet been enacted, budgetary re-
sources other than unobligated balances shall be at 
the level available in the current year. 
‘‘(2) CURRENT-YEAR APPROPRIATIONS.—If, for 
any account, a continuing appropriation is in effect 
for less than the entire current year, then the cur-
rent-year amount shall be assumed to equal the 
amount that would be available if that continuing 
appropriation covered the entire fiscal year. If law 
permits the transfer of budget authority among 
budget accounts in the current year, the current- 
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