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cal year 2002, and $242,000,000 in outlays in fiscal
years 1997 through 2002.
(10) COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND IN-
FRASTRUCTURE.—The House Committee on Trans-
portation and Infrastructure shall report changes in
laws within its jurisdiction that provide direct spend-
ing such that the total level of direct spending for
that committee does not exceed: $18,254,000,000 in
outlays for fiscal year 1997, $17,890,000,000 in
outlays for fiscal year 2002, and $106,903,000,000
in outlays in fiscal years 1997 through 2002.
(11) COMMITTEE
ON
VETERANS’ AFFAIRS.—
The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs shall re-
port changes in laws within its jurisdiction that pro-
vide direct spending such that the total level of di-
rect spending for that committee does not exceed:
$21,375,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 1997,
$22,217,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 2002, and
$130,468,000,000 in outlays in fiscal years 1997
through 2002.
(12) COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS.—(A)
The House Committee on Ways and Means shall re-
port changes in laws within its jurisdiction that pro-
vide direct spending such that the total level of di-
rect spending for that committee does not exceed:
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$373,764,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 1997,
$509,912,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 2002,
and $2,638,286,000,000 in outlays in fiscal years
1997 through 2002.
(B) The House Committee on Ways and Means
shall report changes in laws within its jurisdiction
such that the total level of revenues for that commit-
tee is not less than: $1,050,476,000,000 in revenues
for fiscal year 1997, $1,319,852,000,000 in revenues
for fiscal year 2002, and $7,047,865,000,000 in rev-
enues in fiscal years 1997 through 2002.
(e) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the
term ‘‘direct spending’’ has the meaning given to such
term in section 250(c)(8) of the Balanced Budget and
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.
SEC. 5. SALE OF GOVERNMENT ASSETS.
(a) BUDGETARY TREATMENT.—For purposes of the
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, amounts realized from
sales of assets shall be scored with respect to the level
of budget authority, outlays, or revenues.
(b) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the
term ‘‘sale of an asset’’ shall have the same meaning as
under section 250(c)(21) of the Balanced Budget and
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.
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(c) TREATMENT OF LOAN ASSETS.—For purposes of
this section, the sale of loan assets or the prepayment of
a loan shall be governed by the terms of the Federal Credit
Reform Act of 1990.
SEC. 6. CREDIT REFORM AND DIRECT STUDENT LOANS.
For the purposes of any concurrent resolution on the
budget and the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the
cost of a direct loan under the Federal direct student loan
program shall be the net present value, at the time when
the direct loan is disbursed, of the following cash flows
for the estimated life of the loan—
(1) loan disbursements;
(2) repayments of principal;
(3) payments of interest and other payments by
or to the Government over the life of the loan after
adjusting for estimated defaults, prepayments, fees,
penalties, and other recoveries; and
(4) direct expenses, including—
(A) activities related to credit extension,
loan origination, loan servicing, management of
contractors, and payments to contractors, other
government entities, and program participants;
(B) collection of delinquent loans; and
(C) writeoff and closeout of loans.
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SEC. 7. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON BASELINES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that:
(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 de-
picted 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 CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that baseline budgeting should be replaced with a
budgetary model that requires justification of aggregate
funding levels and maximizes congressional accountability
for Federal spending.
SEC. 8. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON EMERGENCIES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that:
(1) The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 ex-
empted from the discretionary spending limits and
the Pay-As-You-Go requirements for entitlement and
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tax legislation funding requirements that are des-
ignated by Congress and the President as an emer-
gency.
(2) Congress and the President have increas-
ingly misused the emergency designation by—
(A) designating as emergencies funding re-
quirements that are predictable and do not pose
a threat to life, property, or national security,
(B) designating emergencies with the sole
purpose of circumventing statutory and con-
gressional spending limitations and
(C) adding to emergency legislation con-
troversial items that would not otherwise with-
stand public scrutiny.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that in order to balance the Federal budget Congress
should consider alternative approaches to budgeting for
emergencies, including codifying the definition of an emer-
gency, establishing contingency funds to pay for emer-
gencies, and fully offsetting the costs of emergencies with
rescissions of spending authority that would have been ob-
ligated but for the rescission.
SEC. 9. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON LOAN SALES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that:
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(1) The House and Senate Appropriations Sub-
committees on Treasury, Postal Service, and General
Government have stated that ‘‘more consideration
should be given to the sale of nonperforming loans
held not only by HUD, but by all Federal agencies
that provide credit programs’’ and directed the Of-
fice of Management and Budget to direct Federal
agencies to evaluate the value of their credit pro-
grams and develop a plan for the privatization of
such credit programs.
(2) The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Re-
lated Agencies has directed that the Small Business
Administration should study and report to Congress
on the feasibility of private servicing of SBA loan
activities.
(3) The House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug
Administration, and Related Agencies previously di-
rected the Farmers Home Administration to ‘‘ex-
plore the potential savings that might occur from
contract centralized servicing.’’
(4) The Committee on Agriculture of the House
has consistently urged the Secretary of Agriculture
to explore contracting out loan servicing operations.