Stop Over Spending Act of 2006

Bill: 109-s-3521
Sponsor: Sen. Gregg, Judd [R-NH]
Introduced: 2006-06-15 in the Senate
Policy area: Economics and Public Finance
Subjects: Appropriations
Authorization
Biennial budgets
Budget deficits
Budget reconciliation
Budget resolutions
Congress
Congressional budget
Congressional committees (House)
Congressional committees (Senate)
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Economic growth
Federal advisory bodies
Federal budget process
Government Operations and Politics
Government spending reductions
Health
House rules and procedure
Income tax
Item veto
Legislation
Legislative resolutions
Medicaid
Medicare
Planning-programming-budgeting
Rescission of appropriated funds
Senate rules and procedure
Social Welfare
Social security finance
Tax expenditures
Taxation

Summary:
action_date: 2006-06-15
text: 
 Stop Over Spending Act of 2006 - Legislative Line Item Veto Act of 2006 - Amends the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to authorize the President to transmit annually to Congress a maximum of four special messages that propose to rescind dollar amounts of discretionary budget authority, items of direct spending, and targeted tax benefits.
 
Requires an analysis by: (1) the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of an estimated savings in budget authority or outlays resulting from such rescission; and (2) the Joint Committee on Taxation of an estimated savings resulting from repeal of targeted tax benefits.
 
Requires any rescinded budget authority, items of direct spending, or targeted tax benefit to be dedicated only to deficit reduction, and not to be used as an offset for other spending increases or revenue reductions.
 
Provides for adjustment of: (1) committee allocations resulting from such rescission; and (2) applicable limits, as appropriate, under this Act.
 
Sets forth procedures for expedited congressional consideration of a proposed rescission.
 
Requires the: (1) President to issue an order fully implementing without change all sequestrations required by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in its Final Sequestration Report; and (2) the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report to Congress and the President on the order's compliance with this Act.
 
Prescribes requirements for discretionary sequestration reports by OMB and GAO, discretionary spending and maximum deficit limits, a federal tax gap initiative, executive and legislative branch sequestration procedures, and congressional response to low economic growth.
 
Prohibits the President's budget from exceeding the maximum deficit amount for any fiscal year.
 
Requires biennial budget resolutions, appropriations Acts, and government strategic and performance plans.
 
Defines the budget biennium.
 
Establishes the National Commission on Entitlement Solvency and the Commission on Congressional Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies.
 
Provides for expedited congressional consideration of the appropriate Commission's recommendations for legislative action or agency reform proposals.
 
Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to revise budget resolution requirements.
 
Authorizes the chairman of the Committee on the Budget to notify the Senate of a Medicare funding warning. Makes it out of order to consider any legislation that would cause any increase in direct spending, net of proposals to change direct spending receipts, or revenues contained in the measure if the Senate has been notified of such warning for two consecutive calendar years.

action_date: 2006-07-14
text: 
Stop Over Spending Act of 2006 - 

Title I: Legislative Line Item Veto Act of 2006
 - (Sec. 102) Amends the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (CBICA) to authorize the President to transmit annually to Congress a maximum of four special messages that propose to rescind dollar amounts of discretionary budget authority, items of direct spending, and targeted tax benefits.
 
Prohibits the President from resubmitting any proposed rescission that Congress rejects. Does allow the President to resubmit, in one subsequent special message, some or all of the dollar amounts of such rescissions if Congress adjourns sine die without completing legislative action on them.
 
Requires an analysis: (1) by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of estimated savings in budget authority or outlays resulting from such rescission; and (2) by the Joint Committee on Taxation of estimated savings resulting from repeal of targeted tax benefits.
 
Requires any rescinded budget authority, items of direct spending, or targeted tax benefit to be dedicated only to deficit reduction, and not to be used as an offset for other spending increases or revenue reductions.
 
Requires the chairs of the Senate and House Budget Committees to revise spending and revenue levels under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA) and adjust CBA committee allocations and any other appropriate adjustments to reflect the rescission.
 
Requires revised allocations and aggregates to be considered to have been made under an agreed-to budget resolution and to be enforced under CBA procedures. Requires the President, after enactment of a rescission bill, to revise applicable limits under this Act, as appropriate.
 
Sets forth procedures for expedited congressional consideration of a proposed rescission.
 
Authorizes the President, up to 45 days after receipt by Congress of his special message, to: (1) withhold from obligation any discretionary budget authority; and (2) suspend the execution of any item of direct spending or targeted tax benefit. 
 
Requires the Joint Committee on Taxation to: (1) review any revenue or reconciliation bill or joint resolution amending the Internal Revenue Code being prepared for filing by a conference committee; (2) identify whether such legislation contains any targeted tax benefits; and (3) provide the conference committee with a statement identifying such targeted benefits or declaring that such measure does not contain targeted tax benefits.
 
Terminates this Act on December 31, 2010.
 

Title II: Deficit Reduction
 
 - Subtitle A: Definitions, Administration, and Sequestration 
- (Sec. 202) Establishes a timetable for administration, reconciliation, and the effect of sequestration under this Act. 
 
Requires the President to issue an order fully implementing without change all sequestrations required by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in its Final Sequestration Report.
 
(Sec. 203) Requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report to Congress and the President on the order's compliance with this Act.
 

Subtitle B: Discretionary Spending Limits - 
(Sec. 211) Prescribes requirements for discretionary sequestration reports by OMB and GAO for the current year through 2009.
 
(Sec. 212) Establishes discretionary spending limits for FY2007-FY2009. Limits adjustments for emergency requirements designated by the President and enacted by Congress for such fiscal years.
 
Allows an adjustment if an appropriation measure is enacted for FY2007, FY2008, or FY2009 that includes $6.824 billion plus an additional amount for the enhanced tax enforcement initiative of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
 
Prescribes requirements for executive and legislative branch sequestration procedures to eliminate a budget-year breach if enacted discretionary appropriations exceed the discretionary spending limits.
 

Subtitle C: Maximum Deficit Amount Limitation
 - (Sec. 221) Sets the maximum deficit amounts for FY2007-FY2012.
 
(Sec. 222) Requires OMB and CBO, with respect to each fiscal year, to estimate: (1) the deficit; (2) the maximum deficit amount; and (3) any excess deficit amount for the budget year.
 
Sets forth OMB and CBO reporting requirements regarding the maximum deficit amount, revised estimates, and maximum deficit amount reconciliation.
 
(Sec. 223) Sets forth requirements for congressional response to OMB and CBO reconciliation reports.
 
(Sec. 224) Prescribes requirements for OMB and CBO revised estimates and final maximum deficit amount sequestration reports.
 
(Sec. 225) Requires the President, based on such report and the timetable specified in this Act, to issue an order to reduce the maximum deficit amount.
 
(Sec. 226) Prescribes special congressional procedures for response to low economic growth.
 
(Sec. 227) Exempts from sequestration orders any benefits payable under the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance program (OASDI) of Part II of the Social Security Act and Tier I railroad retirement benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974.
 
(Sec. 228) Prohibits the President's budget from exceeding the maximum deficit amount for any fiscal year.
 

Title III: Biennial Budget and Appropriations
 - (Sec. 301) Amends CBA to revise the timetable for the congressional budget process (beginning with the 110th Congress) to require biennial (currently, annual) budgets.
 
Defines the budget biennium as the period of two consecutive fiscal years beginning on October 1 of any odd-numbered year.
 
(Sec. 303) Requires biennial budget resolutions, appropriations Acts, and government strategic and performance plans.
 
(Sec. 307) Makes it out of order in the House of Representatives or the Senate in odd-numbered years to consider any regular bill providing new budget authority, or a limitation on obligations under the jurisdiction of any of the subcommittees of the Committees on Appropriations, for only the first fiscal year of a biennium, unless the program, project, or activity for which such authority or limitation is provided: (1) will require no additional authority beyond one year; and (2) will be completed or terminated after the amount has been expended.
 
(Sec. 308) Requires OMB to report to the House and Senate Committees on the Budget any changes in law to CBA and the provisions of this Act required to conform with a biennial budget process.
 
 

Title IV: Commissions - Subtitle A: National Commission on Entitlement Solvency
 - (Sec. 402) Establishes the National Commission on Entitlement Solvency to review and report to the President, Congress, the Commissioner of Social Security, and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs, identifying problems that may threaten their long-term (at least 75-year) solvency.
 
(Sec. 403) Requires expedited congressional consideration of the Commission's legislative action recommendation.
 

Subtitle B: Commission on Congressional Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies - 
(Sec. 412) Establishes the Commission on Congressional Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies to: (1) evaluate all agencies and programs identified in the President's systematic assessment of agency programs to determine whether any are duplicative, wasteful, or outdated; (2) submit a plan to Congress for the elimination or the realignment of any agency or program that has completed its intended purpose, become irrelevant, or has failed to meet its objectives; and (3) propose legislation to meet such a plan.
 
(Sec. 416) Requires expedited congressional consideration of the Commission's recommendations for agency reform proposals.
 
(Sec. 418) Authorizes appropriations for FY2007-FY2011.
 

Title V: Budget Process Reforms
 - (Sec. 501) Amends CBICA to set forth new definitions to conform with this Act.
 
(Sec. 502) Amends CBA to revise budget resolution requirements. Allows appropriate congressional committees to submit recommendations for deficit reductions to the House or Senate Budget Committees. Modifies the contents of the Committee's hearing reports.
 
(Sec. 503) Repeals provisions requiring further division of amounts allocated to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
 
(Sec. 504) Modifies: (1) requirements for adoption of the budget resolution before consideration of budget-related legislation; (2) procedures for congressional consideration of such resolution; (3) contents of the five-year budget projection; (4) reconciliation directives to be included in the resolution and congressional consideration of such directives; (5) enforcement mechanisms of budget aggregates; (6) mechanisms used by the House and Senate Budget Committees for determining levels of new budget authority, outlays, direct spending, new entitlement authority, and revenues for a fiscal year.
 
Repeals provisions relating to points of order in the Senate on discretionary spending and the maximum deficit amount.
 
(Sec. 510) Revises the prohibition against the inclusion of extraneous matter in reconciliation legislation. Provides that, except regarding consideration of conference reports, a provision shall not be considered extraneous if it produces an increase in outlays or decrease in governmental receipts that does not exceed 20% of the total change required in a committee's reconciliation instruction. Exempts technical and conforming provisions.
 
(Sec. 511) Repeals certain requirements for adjustments of: (1) discretionary spending limits, if any, set forth in the appropriate budget resolution; (2) certain committee allocations made pursuant to such resolution; and (3) budgetary aggregates set forth in it.
 
(Sec. 512) Authorizes the chairman of the Committee on the Budget to notify the Senate of a Medicare funding warning if the chairman projects that within seven years Treasury general fund contributions to Medicare funding, expressed as a percentage of total Medicare outlays, will exceed 45%.
 
Makes it out of order to consider any legislation that would cause any increase in direct spending, net of proposals to change direct spending receipts, or revenues contained in the measure, if the Senate has received a Medicare funding warning for two consecutive calendar years.
 
Permits waiver or suspension of such provisions only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Senate. Requires an affirmative vote of three-fifths also for appeals in the Senate of rulings of the Chair.
 
Declares that any notification of a Medicare funding warning is withdrawn if legislation is enacted to reduce the general fund contribution below 45%, as determined by the chairman.
 
(Sec. 513) Requires any submission to Congress, upon the request of either chamber, by a federal executive branch or D.C. government officer or employee of an appropriations estimate or request, a request for an increase in that estimate or request, or a recommendation on meeting the financial needs of the government to be submitted to both Congress and a congressional committee at the same time. (Currently such a submission may be to either the Congress or a congressional committee.)


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2006-07-14
text: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 520.
action_date: 2006-07-14
text: Committee on the Budget. Reported by Senator Gregg with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 109-283. Additional and Minority views filed.
action_date: 2006-07-14
text: Committee on the Budget. Reported by Senator Gregg with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 109-283. Additional and Minority views filed.
action_date: 2006-06-20
text: Committee on the Budget. Ordered to be reported with an amendment favorably.
action_date: 2006-06-15
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.
action_date: 2006-06-15
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S5958-5961)
action_date: 2006-06-15
text: Introduced in Senate