I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 593 
To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 
to modify the discretionary spending limits to take into account savings 
resulting from the reduction in the number of Federal employees. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 8, 2013 
Mr. MCKEON (for himself, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. BROOKS of Alabama, Mr. 
HUNTER, Mr. THORNBERRY, Mrs. WALORSKI, Mr. WILSON of South 
Carolina, Mr. RIGELL, Mr. JONES, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. FRANKS of Ari-
zona, Mr. TURNER, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. PALAZZO, Mrs. NOEM, 
Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. HECK of Nevada, Mr. RUNYAN, Mr. 
SALMON, Mr. BISHOP of Utah, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr. ROGERS of Alabama, 
Mr. COFFMAN, Mr. SHUSTER, and Mr. KLINE) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government 
Reform, and in addition to the Committees on the Budget, House Admin-
istration, and Appropriations, for a period to be subsequently determined 
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Con-
trol Act of 1985 to modify the discretionary spending 
limits to take into account savings resulting from the 
reduction in the number of Federal employees. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Down Payment to Pro-
tect National Security Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
(1) On April 13, 2011, in a speech at George 
Washington University, the President outlined his 
plan to further reduce military spending by $400 bil-
lion through fiscal year 2023. 
(2) On August 2, 2011, the President signed 
into law, S. 365, the Budget Control Act of 2011, 
which reduced discretionary spending and estab-
lished a sequestration effective January 2, 2013, 
pursuant to the Balanced Budget and Emergency 
Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hol-
lings Act) in the event that additional deficit reduc-
tion could not be found. To this end, the Budget 
Control Act of 2011 also established a Joint Select 
Committee on Deficit Reduction charged with identi-
fying $1.2 trillion in additional savings by Novem-
ber, 2011. 
(3) The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Re-
duction was unable to reach an agreement, which re-
sulted in new spending caps for national defense for 
fiscal year 2013. 
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(4) On March 29, 2012, the House of Rep-
resentatives passed H. Con. Res. 112, the budget 
resolution for fiscal year 2013, which included rec-
onciliation instructions directing House Committees 
to craft legislation that would achieve the savings re-
quired to replace the sequestration called for in fis-
cal year 2013, as established by the Budget Control 
Act of 2011. 
(5) On May 10, 2012, the House of Represent-
atives passed H.R. 5652, the Sequestration Replace-
ment Reconciliation Act of 2012, which would re-
place the $98 billion sequestration of discretionary 
spending called for in 2013, as established by the 
Budget Control Act of 2011, by making changes in 
law to reduce mandatory spending by $310 billion 
through fiscal year 2022. 
(6) Acting Director of the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget, Jeffery Zients, testified before the 
House Armed Services Committee on August 1, 
2012, ‘‘Sequestration, by design, is bad policy, and 
Congress should pass balanced deficit reduction to 
avoid it.’’. 
(7) On August 7, 2012, the President signed 
into law, H.R. 5872, the Sequestration Trans-
parency Act of 2012, which required the President 
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to submit to Congress a detailed report on the im-
plementation of the sequestration for fiscal year 
2013 by September 6, 2012. The President failed to 
submit the report by the due date and the report did 
not provide a detailed assessment of potential im-
pacts of sequestration, stating instead that, ‘‘no 
amount of planning can mitigate the significant im-
pact of the sequestration’’. 
(8) On September 11, 2012, Bob Woodward re-
leased ‘‘The Price of Politics’’, documenting the ori-
gins of sequestration in the Budget Control Act of 
2011 negotiations, stating, ‘‘[Jack] Lew, [Rob] 
Nabors, [Gene] Sperling and Bruce Reed, Biden’s 
chief of staff, had finally decided to propose using 
language from the 1985 Gramm-Rudman-Hollings 
deficit reduction law as the model for the trigger. 
. . . It would require a sequester with half the cuts 
from Defense, and the other half from domestic pro-
grams. There would be no chance the Republicans 
would want to pull the trigger and allow the seques-
ter to force massive cuts to Defense.’’. 
(9) On October 22, 2012, referring to the up-
coming implementation of sequestration on the U.S. 
military, the President said, ‘‘it will not happen’’. 
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(10) On January 2, 2013, the President signed 
into law, H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act 
of 2012, which moved the effective date of the se-
questration to March 1, 2013. Fifty percent of the 
required offset was generated through tax increases, 
while 25 percent came from additional cuts to de-
fense discretionary spending and the remaining 25 
percent from domestic discretionary spending. No 
reduction to mandatory spending was included in 
H.R. 8. 
(11) To date, Congress has enacted and the 
President has signed into law $1.1 trillion in discre-
tionary spending cuts, plus an additional $600 bil-
lion in tax increases, with no spending reductions in 
mandatory programs. 
(12) Should sequestration occur on March 1, 
2013, an additional $800 billion in across the board 
defense and domestic discretionary cuts will be ap-
plied over a 9-year period, with negligible reductions 
in mandatory spending. 
(13) On January 14, 2013, all seven members 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed a letter to the 
congressional defense committees stating, ‘‘Should 
this looming readiness crisis be left unaddressed, we 
will have to ground aircraft, return ships to port, 
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and stop driving combat vehicles in training. Train-
ing will be reduced by almost half of what we were 
planning just three months ago. . . . We will also be 
unable to reset and restore the force’s full-spectrum 
combat capability after over a decade of hard fight-
ing in Iraq and Afghanistan. . . . Under current 
budgetary uncertainty, we are at grave risk of an 
imposed mismatch between the size of our Nation’s 
military force and the funding required to maintain 
its readiness, which will inevitably lead to a hollow 
force.’’. 
(14) The Joint Chiefs of Staff further stated, 
‘‘We are also now planning for the potential to fur-
lough up to nearly 800,000 defense civilians who are 
essential to critical functions like maintenance, intel-
ligence, logistics, contracting, and health care.’’. 
(15) On January 28, 2013, the Vice Chairman 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated ‘‘I know of no 
other time in history when we have come potentially 
down this far, this fast, in the defense budget. . . . 
There could be, for the first time in my career, in-
stances where we may be asked to respond to a cri-
sis and we will have to say that we cannot.’’. 
(16) On February 5, 2013, the President pro-
posed to further delay the sequestration using the 
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same model adopted in H.R. 8, the American Tax-
payer Relief Act of 2012, 50 percent through tax in-
creases, 25 percent through additional cuts to de-
fense discretionary, and 25 percent through addi-
tional cuts to domestic discretionary programs. For 
fiscal year 2013, the President’s proposal would re-
sult in an additional $21 billion cut to the military. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that: 
(1) Full sequestration is a failed Administration 
policy that must be averted. 
(2) Without growing the economy and reducing 
the rate of growth in mandatory spending programs, 
the United States will continue to run deficits, even 
if defense and domestic discretionary programs were 
defunded in their entirety. 
(3) Having enacted defense and domestic dis-
cretionary spending reductions and raised taxes, 
truly balanced deficit reduction must include sub-
stantive reductions in mandatory spending. 
(4) The President’s short term plan to avert se-
questration lacks balance and would continue to 
raise taxes and slash defense and domestic discre-
tionary spending, exacerbating the readiness crisis 
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