Title: MAKE CENTS Act
Policy area: Economics and Public Finance

Summary:
Making Americans Know about Excessive spending through Commonsense Efforts to Notice and Target Shenanigans Act or the MAKE CENTS Act
This bill modifies the federal budget process to add reporting requirements, limit spending at the end of a fiscal year, and impose penalties on Congress for failing to approve a budget resolution or the annual appropriations bills on a timely basis.
Among other changes, the bill

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3267 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3267

 To provide adequate information about excessive Federal spending, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 11, 2020

 Ms. Ernst (for herself and Mr. Perdue) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 
                        and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide adequate information about excessive Federal spending, and 
                          for other purposes.

    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 ``Making Americans Know about 
Excessive spending through Commonsense Efforts to Notice and Target 
Shenanigans Act'' or the ``MAKE CENTS Act''.

SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
                  TITLE I--BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLES

Sec. 101. Annual report.
           TITLE II--COST OPENNESS AND SPENDING TRANSPARENCY

Sec. 201. Disclosure requirements for recipients of Federal funds.
              TITLE III--END-OF-YEAR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Sec. 301. Definitions.
Sec. 302. Requirements for Executive agency spending at the end of a 
                            fiscal year.
                      TITLE IV--NO BUDGET, NO PAY

Sec. 401. Definition.
Sec. 402. Timely approval of concurrent resolution on the budget and 
                            the appropriations bills.
Sec. 403. No pay without concurrent resolution on the budget and the 
                            appropriations bills.
Sec. 404. Determinations.
Sec. 405. Effective date.
                     TITLE V--NO BUDGET, NO RECESS

Sec. 501. No budget, no recess.
Sec. 502. Completion of House action on regular appropriations bills.

                  TITLE I--BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLES

SEC. 101. ANNUAL REPORT.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section--
            (1) the term ``covered agency'' means--
                    (A) an Executive agency, as defined in section 105 
                of title 5, United States Code; and
                    (B) an independent regulatory agency, as defined in 
                section 3502 of title 44, United States Code;
            (2) the term ``covered project'' means a project funded by 
        a covered agency--
                    (A) that is more than 5 years behind schedule; or
                    (B) for which the amount spent on the project is 
                not less than $1,000,000,000 more than the original 
                cost estimate for the project; and
            (3) the term ``project'' means a major acquisition, a major 
        defense acquisition program (as defined in section 2430 of 
        title 10, United States Code), a procurement, a construction 
        project, a remediation or clean-up effort, or any other time-
        limited endeavor, that is not funded through direct spending 
        (as defined in section 250(c) of the Balanced Budget and 
        Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 900(c)).
    (b) Requirement.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall 
issue guidance requiring covered agencies to include, on an annual 
basis in a report described in paragraph (2) of section 3516(a) of 
title 31, United States Code, or a consolidated report described in 
paragraph (1) of such section, information relating to each covered 
project of the covered agency, which shall include--
            (1) a brief description of the covered project, including--
                    (A) the purpose of the covered project;
                    (B) each location in which the covered project is 
                carried out;
                    (C) the contract or award number of the covered 
                project, where applicable;
                    (D) the year in which the covered project was 
                initiated;
                    (E) the Federal share of the total cost of the 
                covered project; and
                    (F) each primary contractor, subcontractor, grant 
                recipient, and subgrantee recipient of the covered 
                project;
            (2) an explanation of any change to the original scope of 
        the covered project, including by the addition or narrowing of 
        the initial requirements of the covered project;
            (3) the original expected date for completion of the 
        covered project;
            (4) the current expected date for completion of the covered 
        project;
            (5) the original cost estimate for the covered project, as 
        adjusted to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index for 
        All Urban Consumers, as published by the Bureau of Labor 
        Statistics;
            (6) the current cost estimate for the covered project, as 
        adjusted to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index for 
        All Urban Consumers, as published by the Bureau of Labor 
        Statistics;
            (7) an explanation for a delay in completion or an increase 
        in the original cost estimate for the covered project, 
        including, where applicable, any impact of insufficient or 
        delayed appropriations; and
            (8) the amount of and rationale for any award, incentive 
        fee, or other type of bonus, if any, awarded for the covered 
        project.

           TITLE II--COST OPENNESS AND SPENDING TRANSPARENCY

SEC. 201. DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS FOR RECIPIENTS OF FEDERAL FUNDS.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter III of chapter 13 of title 31, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 1356. Disclosure requirements for recipients of Federal funds
    ``(a) In General.--An individual or entity (including a State or 
local government and a recipient of a Federal research grant) carrying 
out a program, project, or activity that is, in whole or in part, 
carried out using Federal funds shall clearly state in any statement, 
press release, requests for proposal, bid solicitation, or other 
document describing the program, project, or activity, other than a 
communication containing not more than 280 characters--
            ``(1) the percentage of the total costs of the program, 
        project, or activity which will be financed with Federal funds;
            ``(2) the dollar amount of the Federal funds made available 
        for the program, project, or activity; and
            ``(3) the percentage of the total costs of, and dollar 
        amount for, the program, project, or activity that will be 
        financed by nongovernmental sources.
    ``(b) Noncompliance.--If the Director of the Office of Management 
and Budget determines that an individual or entity is failing to comply 
with subsection (a), the Director may direct the head of each agency 
providing Federal funds to the individual or entity to withhold not 
more than 25 percent of the amount of Federal funds that would 
otherwise be provided to the individual or entity, until the date on 
which the individual or entity complies with subsection (a).''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for 
subchapter III of chapter 13 of title 31, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:

``1356. Disclosure requirements for recipients of Federal funds.''.

              TITLE III--END-OF-YEAR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

SEC. 301. DEFINITIONS.

    In this title:
            (1) Covered period.--The term ``covered period'' means the 
        2-month period immediately preceding the end of a fiscal year.
            (2) Discretionary appropriations.--The term ``discretionary 
        appropriations'' has the meaning given the term in section 
        250(c) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act 
        of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 900(c)).
            (3) Executive agency.--The term ``Executive agency'' has 
        the meaning given the term in section 105 of title 5, United 
        States Code.

SEC. 302. REQUIREMENTS FOR EXECUTIVE AGENCY SPENDING AT THE END OF A 
              FISCAL YEAR.

    (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (c), the amount 
of discretionary appropriations obligated by an Executive agency during 
each month of a covered period may not exceed the average monthly 
amount of discretionary appropriations obligated by the Executive 
agency during the 10-month period immediately preceding the covered 
period.
    (b) Report.--Not later than 60 days after the end of each fiscal 
year, each Executive agency shall submit to Congress and post on a 
publicly available website an itemized list of discretionary 
appropriations obligated by the Executive agency during the covered 
period immediately preceding the date on which the report is submitted.
    (c) Exception.--This section shall not apply with respect to any 
discretionary appropriations obligated by an Executive agency for 
national security-related activities.

                      TITLE IV--NO BUDGET, NO PAY

SEC. 401. DEFINITION.

    In this title, the term ``Member of Congress''--
            (1) has the meaning given under section 2106 of title 5, 
        United States Code; and
            (2) does not include the Vice President.

SEC. 402. TIMELY APPROVAL OF CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET AND 
              THE APPROPRIATIONS BILLS.

    If both Houses of Congress have not approved a concurrent 
resolution on the budget as described under section 301 of the 
Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 632) 
for a fiscal year before October 1 of that fiscal year and have not 
passed all the regular appropriations bills for the next fiscal year 
before October 1 of that fiscal year, the pay of each Member of 
Congress may not be paid for each day following that October 1 until 
the date on which both Houses of Congress approve a concurrent 
resolution on the budget for that fiscal year and all the regular 
appropriations bills.

SEC. 403. NO PAY WITHOUT CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET AND THE 
              APPROPRIATIONS BILLS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no 
funds may be appropriated or otherwise be made available from the 
United States Treasury for the pay of any Member of Congress during any 
period determined by the Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget 
and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate or the Chairpersons 
of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of 
the House of Representatives under section 404.
    (b) No Retroactive Pay.--A Member of Congress may not receive pay 
for any period determined by the Chairpersons of the Committee on the 
Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate or the 
Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on 
Appropriations of the House of Representatives under section 404, at 
any time after the end of that period.

SEC. 404. DETERMINATIONS.

    (a) Senate.--
            (1) Request for certifications.--On October 1 of each year, 
        the Secretary of the Senate shall submit a request to the 
        Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee 
        on Appropriations of the Senate for certification of 
        determinations made under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of 
        paragraph (2).
            (2) Determinations.--The Chairpersons of the Committee on 
        the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate 
        shall--
                    (A) on October 1 of each year, make a determination 
                of whether Congress is in compliance with section 402 
                and whether Senators may not be paid under that 
                section;
                    (B) determine the period of days following each 
                October 1 that Senators may not be paid under section 
                402; and
                    (C) provide timely certification of the 
                determinations under subparagraphs (A) and (B) upon the 
                request of the Secretary of the Senate.
    (b) House of Representatives.--
            (1) Request for certifications.--On October 1 of each year, 
        the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of 
        Representatives shall submit a request to the Chairpersons of 
        the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations 
        of the House of Representatives for certification of 
        determinations made under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of 
        paragraph (2).
            (2) Determinations.--The Chairpersons of the Committee on 
        the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of 
        Representatives shall--
                    (A) on October 1 of each year, make a determination 
                of whether Congress is in compliance with section 402 
                and whether Members of the House of Representatives may 
                not be paid under that section;
                    (B) determine the period of days following each 
                October 1 that Members of the House of Representatives 
                may not be paid under section 402; and
                    (C) provide timely certification of the 
                determinations under subparagraphs (A) and (B) upon the 
                request of the Chief Administrative Officer of the 
                House of Representatives.

SEC. 405. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This title shall take effect on February 1, 2021.

                     TITLE V--NO BUDGET, NO RECESS

SEC. 501. NO BUDGET, NO RECESS.

    Section 300 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 631) 
is amended--
            (1) by striking ``The timetable'' and inserting the 
        following:
    ``(a) In General.--The timetable''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) No Budget, No Recess.--
            ``(1) Limits in the senate and house of representatives.--
        The procedures specified in paragraphs (2), (3), and (4) shall 
        apply in the Senate and the procedures specified in paragraphs 
        (2), (3), and (5) shall apply in the House of Representatives--
                    ``(A) on and after April 15 of each year, if the 
                Senate and House of Representatives have not adopted a 
                concurrent resolution on the budget for the next fiscal 
                year; and
                    ``(B) on and after August 1 of each year, if the 
                Senate and House of Representatives have not passed, 
                individually or collectively, all the regular 
                appropriations bills for the next fiscal year.
            ``(2) No recess or adjournment.--During a period described 
        in paragraph (1), it shall not be in order in the Senate or the 
        House of Representatives to move to recess or to adjourn for 
        more than 8 hours.
            ``(3) No official travel.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Except as provided in 
                subparagraph (B), during a period described in 
                paragraph (1), no amounts may be obligated or expended 
                for official travel by a Member of Congress.
                    ``(B) Return to dc.--If a Member of Congress is 
                away from the seat of Government when a period 
                described in paragraph (1) begins, funds may be 
                obligated and expended for official travel by the 
                Member of Congress to return to the seat of Government.
            ``(4) Additional limits in the senate.--
                    ``(A) Determination of presence of a quorum.--
                Notwithstanding any provision of the Standing Rules of 
                the Senate, in the Senate, during each day during a 
                period described in paragraph (1), the Presiding 
                Officer shall direct the Clerk to call the roll to 
                ascertain the presence of a quorum--
                            ``(i) at noon; and
                            ``(ii) at 6:00 p.m.
                    ``(B) Lack of quorum.--
                            ``(i) In general.--If, upon a calling of 
                        the roll under subparagraph (A), it shall be 
                        ascertained that a quorum is not present--
                                    ``(I) the Presiding Officer shall 
                                direct the Clerk to call the names of 
                                any absent Senators; and
                                    ``(II) following the calling of the 
                                names under subclause (I), the 
                                Presiding Officer shall, without 
                                intervening motion or debate, submit to 
                                the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the 
                                question: `Shall the Sergeant-at-Arms 
                                be directed to request the attendance 
                                of absent Senators?'.
                            ``(ii) Direction to compel attendance.--If 
                        a quorum is not present 30 minutes after the 
                        time at which the vote on a question submitted 
                        under clause (i)(II) starts, the Presiding 
                        Officer shall, without intervening motion or 
                        debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay 
                        vote the question: `Shall the Sergeant-at-Arms 
                        be directed to compel the attendance of absent 
                        Senators?'.
                            ``(iii) Arrest of absent senators.--
                        Effective 30 minutes after the Sergeant-at-Arms 
                        is directed to compel the attendance of absent 
                        Senators under clause (ii), if any Senator not 
                        excused under rule XII of the Standing Rules of 
                        the Senate is not in attendance, the Senate 
                        shall be deemed to have agreed an order that 
                        reads as follows: `Ordered, That the Sergeant-
                        at-Arms be directed to arrest absent Senators, 
                        that warrants for the arrests of all Senators 
                        not sick nor excused be issued under the 
                        signature of the Presiding Officer and attested 
                        by the Secretary, and that such warrants be 
                        executed without delay.'.
                            ``(iv) Reports.--Not less frequently than 
                        once per hour during proceedings to compel the 
                        attendance of absent Senators, the Sergeant-at-
                        Arms shall submit to the Senate a report on 
                        absent Senators, which shall--
                                    ``(I) be laid before the Senate;
                                    ``(II) identify each Senator whose 
                                absence is excused;
                                    ``(III) identify each Senator who 
                                is absent without excuse; and
                                    ``(IV) for each Senator identified 
                                under subclause (III), provide 
                                information on the current location of 
                                the Senator.
                    ``(C) Regaining the floor.--If a Senator had been 
                recognized to speak at the time a call of the roll to 
                ascertain the presence of a quorum was initiated under 
                subparagraph (A), and if the presence of a quorum is 
                established, that Senator shall be entitled to be 
                recognized to speak.
                    ``(D) No suspension of requirements.--The Presiding 
                Officer may not entertain a request to suspend the 
                operation of this paragraph by unanimous consent or 
                motion.
                    ``(E) Consistency with senate emergency procedures 
                and practices.--Nothing in this paragraph shall be 
                construed in a manner that is inconsistent with S. Res. 
                296 (108th Congress) or any other emergency procedures 
                or practices of the Senate.
            ``(5) Additional limits in the house of representatives.--
        Notwithstanding any provision of the Rules of the House of 
        Representatives, in the House of Representatives, during each 
        day during a period described in paragraph (1), each Member of 
        the House of Representatives shall record his or her presence 
        for purposes of establishing a quorum at noon and 6:00 p.m.
            ``(6) No waiver.--Notwithstanding section 904(b), 
        paragraphs (2), (3), (4), and (5) of this subsection may not be 
        waived or suspended in the Senate or the House of 
        Representatives.
            ``(7) Permanent law.--Notwithstanding section 904(a), 
        paragraph (3) of this subsection is not enacted as an exercise 
        of the rulemaking power of the Senate or the House of 
        Representatives.''.

SEC. 502. COMPLETION OF HOUSE ACTION ON REGULAR APPROPRIATIONS BILLS.

    Section 309 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 640) 
is amended by inserting ``or August'' after ``July''.
                                 <all>