I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4649 
To amend part C of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 
Act of 1985 to extend the discretionary spending limits. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 22, 2004 
Mr. NUSSLE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Budget 
A BILL 
To amend part C of the Balanced Budget and Emergency 
Deficit Control Act of 1985 to extend the discretionary 
spending limits. 
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 ‘‘Discretionary Spend-
ing Control Act of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF DISCRETIONARY SPENDING LIMITS. 
(a) DISCRETIONARY SPENDING LIMITS.—(1) Section 
251(c)(1) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
Control Act of 1985 (relating to fiscal year 2004) is 
amended—
(A) 
in 
subparagraph 
(A), 
by 
striking 
‘‘$31,834,000,000’’ 
and 
inserting 
‘‘$28,052,000,000’’; and 
(B) 
in 
subparagraph 
(B), 
by 
striking 
‘‘$1,462,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$1,436,000,000’’ 
and by striking ‘‘$6,629,000,000’’ and inserting 
‘‘$6,271,000,000’’. 
(2) Section 251(c)(2) of the Balanced Budget and 
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended by in-
serting a dash after ‘‘2005’’, by redesignating the remain-
ing portion of such paragraph as subparagraph (D) and 
by moving it two ems to the right, and by inserting after 
the dash the following new subparagraphs: 
‘‘(A) for the general purpose discretionary 
category: $817,726,000,000 in new budget au-
thority and $866,056,000,000 in outlays; 
‘‘(B) 
for 
the 
highway 
category: 
$30,585,000,000 in outlays; and 
‘‘(C) for the mass transit category: 
$1,554,000,000 in new budget authority and 
$6,787,000,000 in outlays; and’’. 
(3) Section 251(c)(3) of the Balanced Budget and 
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended by in-
serting a dash after ‘‘2006’’, by redesignating the remain-
ing portion of such paragraph as subparagraph (D) and
by moving it two ems to the right, and by inserting after 
the dash the following new subparagraphs: 
‘‘(A) for the general purpose discretionary 
category: $831,417,000,000 in new budget au-
thority and $846,280,000,000 in outlays; 
‘‘(B) 
for 
the 
highway 
category: 
$33,271,000,000 in outlays; and 
‘‘(C) for the mass transit category: 
$1,671,000,000 in new budget authority and 
$7,585,000,000 in outlays; and’’. 
(4) Section 251(c) of the Balanced Budget and 
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended by re-
designating paragraphs (4) through (9) as paragraphs (7) 
through (12) and inserting after paragraph (3) the fol-
lowing new paragraphs: 
‘‘(4) with respect to fiscal year 2007— 
‘‘(A) 
for 
the 
highway 
category: 
$35,248,000,000 in outlays; and 
‘‘(B) for the mass transit category: 
$1,785,000,000 in new budget authority and 
$8,110,000,000 in outlays; 
‘‘(5) with respect to fiscal year 2008— 
‘‘(A) 
for 
the 
highway 
category: 
$36,587,000,000 in outlays; and
‘‘(B) for the mass transit category: 
$1,890,000,000 in new budget authority and 
$8,517,000,000 in outlays; and 
‘‘(6) with respect to fiscal year 2009— 
‘‘(A) 
for 
the 
highway 
category: 
$37,682,000,000 in outlays; and 
‘‘(B) for the mass transit category: 
$2,017,000,000 in new budget authority and 
$8,968,000,000 in outlays;’’. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 250(c)(4) of the Bal-
anced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 
is amended— 
(1) in subparagraph (B), by— 
(A) striking ‘‘the Transportation Equity 
Act for the 21st Century and the Surface 
Transportation Extension Act of 2003’’ and in-
serting ‘‘the Transportation Equity Act: A Leg-
acy for Users’’; and 
(B) inserting before the period at the end 
the following new clauses: 
‘‘(v) 69–8158–0–7–401 (Motor Carrier 
Safety Grants). 
‘‘(vi) 69–8159–0–7–401 (Motor Carrier 
Safety Operations and Programs).’’; 
(2) in subparagraph (C), by—
(A) inserting ‘‘(and successor accounts)’’ 
after ‘‘budget accounts’’; and 
(B) striking ‘‘the Transportation Equity 
Act for the 21st Century and the Surface 
Transportation Extension Act of 2003 or for 
which appropriations are provided pursuant to 
authorizations contained in those Acts (except 
that appropriations provided pursuant to sec-
tion 5338(h) of title 49, United States Code, as 
amended by the Transportation Equity Act for 
the 21st Century, shall not be included in this 
category)’’ and inserting ‘‘the Transportation 
Equity Act: A Legacy for Users or for which 
appropriations are provided pursuant to author-
izations contained in that Act’’; and 
(3) in subparagraph (D)(ii), by striking ‘‘sec-
tion 8103 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 
21st Century’’ and inserting ‘‘section 8103 of the 
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users’’. 
SEC. 3. ADJUSTMENTS TO ALIGN HIGHWAY SPENDING 
WITH REVENUES. 
Subparagraphs (B) through (E) of section 251(b)(1) 
of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 
Act of 1985 are amended to read as follows:
‘‘(B) ADJUSTMENT
TO
ALIGN
HIGHWAY 
SPENDING
WITH
REVENUES.—(i) When the 
President submits the budget under section 
1105 of title 31, United States Code, OMB 
shall calculate and the budget shall make ad-
justments to the highway category for the budg-
et year and each outyear as provided in clause 
(ii)(I)(cc). 
‘‘(ii)(I)(aa) OMB shall take the actual level 
of highway receipts for the year before the cur-
rent year and subtract the sum of the estimated 
level of highway receipts in subclause (II) plus 
any amount previously calculated under item 
(bb) for that year. 
‘‘(bb) OMB shall take the current estimate 
of highway receipts for the current year and 
subtract the estimated level of receipts for that 
year. 
‘‘(cc) OMB shall add one-half of the sum 
of the amount calculated under items (aa) and 
(bb) to the obligation limitations set forth in 
the section 8103 of the Transportation Equity 
Act: A Legacy for Users and, using current es-
timates, calculate the outlay change resulting 
from the change in obligations for the budget
year and the first outyear and the outlays flow-
ing therefrom through subsequent fiscal years. 
After making the calculations under the pre-
ceding sentence, OMB shall adjust the amount 
of obligations set forth in that section for the 
budget year and the first outyear by adding 
one-half of the sum of the amount calculated 
under items (aa) and (bb) to each such year. 
‘‘(II) The estimated level of highway re-
ceipts for the purposes of this clause are— 
‘‘(aa) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2004, 
$30,572,000,000; 
‘‘(bb) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2005, 
$34,260,000,000; 
‘‘(cc) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2006, 
$35,586,000,000; 
‘‘(dd) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2007, 
$36,570,000,000; 
‘‘(ee) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2008, 
$37,603,000,000; and 
‘‘(ff) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2009, 
$38,651,000,000. 
‘‘(III) In this clause, the term ‘highway re-
ceipts’ means the governmental receipts cred-
‘‘(20) The term ‘advance appropriation’ means 
appropriations that first become available one fiscal 
year or more beyond the fiscal year for which an ap-
propriation Act making such funds available is en-
acted. 
‘‘(21)(A) Except as provided by subparagraph 
(B), the term ‘emergency requirement’ means any 
provision that provides new budget authority and re-
sulting outlays for a situation that poses a threat to 
life, property, or national security and is— 
‘‘(i) sudden, quickly coming into being, and 
not building up over time; 
‘‘(ii) an urgent, pressing, and compelling 
need requiring immediate action; 
‘‘(iii) subject to subparagraph (B), unfore-
seen, unpredictable, and unanticipated; and 
‘‘(iv) not permanent, temporary in nature. 
‘‘(B) An emergency that is part of an aggregate 
level of anticipated emergencies, particularly when 
normally estimated in advance, is not unforeseen.’’. 
(b) FIRE SUPPRESSION; CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS 
RELATED
TO GLOBAL WAR
ON TERRORISM.—Section 
251(b)(2) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
Control Act of 1985 is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subparagraph:
‘‘(I) FIRE SUPPRESSION.—(i) If a bill or 
joint resolution is enacted that provides new 
budget authority for wildland fire suppression 
for fiscal year 2005 or fiscal year 2006 that 
would cause the level of total new budget au-
thority for wildland fire suppression to exceed 
the base amount for that fiscal year, the adjust-
ment for that fiscal year shall be the additional 
new budget authority provided for such purpose 
and the additional outlays flowing from such 
amounts, but shall not exceed— 
‘‘(I) for the Forest Service for fiscal 
year 2005 or fiscal year 2006 (as applica-
ble), $400,000,000; and 
‘‘(II) for the Department of the Inte-
rior for fiscal year 2005 or fiscal year 
2006 (as applicable), $100,000,000. 
‘‘(ii) For this subparagraph, the term 
‘‘base amount’’ refers to the average of the obli-
gations of the 10 fiscal years preceding the cur-
rent year for wildfire suppression in the Forest 
Service and in the Department of the Interior, 
as calculated by OMB, but for fiscal year 2005 
the base amount is $880,000,000.
‘‘(J) CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS RELATED 
TO GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM.—If, for fiscal 
year 2005, supplemental appropriations for dis-
cretionary accounts are enacted for contingency 
operations related to the global war on ter-
rorism that, pursuant to this subparagraph, the 
President designates as a contingency operation 
related to the global war on terrorism and the 
Congress so designates in statute, the adjust-
ment shall be the total of such appropriations 
in discretionary accounts so designated, but not 
to exceed $50,000,000,000, and the outlays 
flowing in all fiscal years from such appropria-
tions.’’. 
(c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The second sen-
tence of section 250(c)(4)(A) of the Balanced Budget and 
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended to 
read as follows: ‘‘The general purpose discretionary cat-
egory shall consist of accounts designated in the joint ex-
planatory statement of managers accompanying the con-
ference report on the Spending Control Act of 2004.’’. 
SEC. 7. PROJECTIONS UNDER SECTION 257. 
Section 257(c) of the Balanced Budget and Emer-
gency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended by inserting 
after paragraph (6) the following new paragraph:
‘‘(7) EMERGENCIES.—New budgetary resources 
designated 
under 
section 
251(b)(2)(A) 
or 
251(b)(2)(J) shall not be assumed beyond the fiscal 
year for which they have been enacted.’’. 
SEC. 8. REPORTS. 
Subsections (c)(2) and (f)(2)(A) of section 254 of the 
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 
1985 are amended by striking ‘‘2002’’ and inserting 
‘‘2006 (or 2009 solely for purposes of enforcing the discre-
tionary spending limits for the highway and mass transit 
categories)’’. 
SEC. 9. EXPIRATION. 
Section 275(b) of the Balanced Budget and Emer-
gency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended by striking 
‘‘2002’’ and inserting ‘‘2006 (or 2009 solely for purposes 
of enforcing the discretionary spending limits for the high-
way and mass transit categories)’’. 
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