Title: Relief From Sequestration Act of 2017
Policy area: Economics and Public Finance

Summary:
Relief From Sequestration Act of 2017
This bill amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 to eliminate the sequestration, or automatic spending cuts, scheduled to occur because the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction failed to recommend legislation to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years, as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1745 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1745

To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 
             to eliminate the section 251A sequestrations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 27, 2017

 Mr. Smith of Washington (for himself, Mr. Conyers, Ms. Michelle Lujan 
  Grisham of New Mexico, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Jayapal, and Ms. DelBene) 
 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 eliminate the section 251A sequestrations.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Relief From Sequestration Act of 
2017''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) Sequestration was designed as a forcing mechanism for 
        an agreement on a comprehensive, deficit reduction plan. It has 
        failed to produce the intended results.
            (2) The Budget Control Act of 2011 was enacted to avert a 
        default on Federal debt obligations.
            (3) Because the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction 
        failed to recommend legislation providing an additional $1.2 
        trillion in deficit reduction, Federal law mandates that the 
        additional savings be sequestered.
            (4) Congress must enact a comprehensive, deficit reduction 
        plan to solve the country's fiscal challenges and to promote 
        national security, economic stability, and the continued growth 
        and prosperity of the United States.
            (5) It no longer makes sense to rely on sequestration as a 
        forcing mechanism for a balanced solution. The costs to our 
        Government and to the economy are too great.
            (6) Under sequestration, damaging cuts would be applied, 
        through fiscal year 2021, to a wide variety of discretionary 
        spending programs to achieve $1.2 trillion in savings, 
        forestalling the sound planning needed for prudent and 
        meaningful investments in national security, the workforce, 
        transportation infrastructure, education, health care, public 
        safety, housing, innovation, small business development, and 
        many other facets of enduring national strength.
            (7) Even the prospect of sequestration is disruptive to 
        regular order and to the congressional appropriations process, 
        and it fosters damaging economic uncertainty, while short-term 
        solutions only suspend the prospect and continue to undermine 
        the certainty needed for economic recovery.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are to--
            (1) eliminate sequestration resulting from the failure of 
        the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction; and
            (2) offer the Federal Government, industry, and the 
        American people the predictability that economic recovery 
        demands.

SEC. 3. REPEAL OF SECTION 251A SEQUESTRATIONS.

    (a) Repealer.--Section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency 
Deficit Control Act of 1985 is repealed.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The item relating to section 251A in the 
table of contents set forth in section 250(a) of the Balanced Budget 
and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is repealed.
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