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Timestamp: 2019-04-19 08:50:03+00:00

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§209. Section 257. The Baseline.
(a) In General.—For any budget year, the baseline refers to a projection of current-year levels of new budget authority, outlays, revenues, and the surplus or deficit into the budget year and the outyears based on laws enacted through the applicable date.
(1) In general.—Laws providing or creating direct spending and receipts are assumed to operate in the manner specified in those laws for each such year and funding for entitlement authority is assumed to be adequate to make all payments required by those laws.
(3) Hospital insurance fund.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the receipts and disbursements of the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund shall be included in all calculations required by this Act.
(1) Inflation of current-year appropriations.—Budgetary resources other than unobligated balances shall be at the level provided for the budget year in full-year appropriation Acts. If for any account a full-year appropriation has not yet been enacted, budgetary resources other than unobligated balances shall be at the level available in the current year, adjusted sequentially and cumulatively for expiring housing contracts as specified in paragraph (2), for social insurance administrative expenses as specified in paragraph (3), to offset pay absorption and for pay annualization as specified in paragraph (4), for inflation as specified in paragraph (5), and to account for changes required by law in the level of agency payments for personnel benefits other than pay.
(2) Expiring housing contracts.—New budget authority to renew expiring multiyear subsidized housing contracts shall be adjusted to reflect the difference in the number of such contracts that are scheduled to expire in that fiscal year and the number expiring in the current year, with the per-contract renewal cost equal to the average current-year cost of renewal contracts.
(3) Social insurance administrative expenses.—Budgetary resources for the administrative expenses of the following trust funds shall be adjusted by the percentage change in the beneficiary population from the current year to that fiscal year: the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Medical Insurance Trust Fund, the Unemployment Trust Fund, and the railroad retirement account.
(4) Pay annualization; offset to pay.—Current-year new budget authority for Federal employees shall be adjusted to reflect the full 12-month costs (without absorption) of any pay adjustment that occurred in that fiscal year.
(5) Inflators.—The inflator used in paragraph (1) to adjust budgetary resources relating to personnel shall be the percent by which the average of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index (wages and salaries, private industry workers) for that fiscal year differs from such index for the current year. The inflator used in paragraph (1) to adjust all other budgetary resources shall be the percent by which the average of the estimated gross domestic product chain-type price index for that fiscal year differs from the average of such estimated index for the current year.
(6) Current-year appropriations.—If, for any account, a continuing appropriation is in effect for less than the entire current year, then the current-year amount shall be assumed to equal the amount that would be available if that continuing appropriation covered the entire fiscal year. If law permits the transfer of budget authority among budget accounts in the current year, the current-year level for an account shall reflect transfers accomplished by the submission of, or assumed for the current year in, the President’s original budget for the budget year.
(d) Up-To-Date Concepts.—In deriving the baseline for any budget year or outyear, current-year amounts shall be calculated using the concepts and definitions that are required for that budget year.
(e) Asset Sales.—Amounts realized from the sale of an asset shall not be included in estimates under section 251, 252, or 253 if that sale would result in a financial cost to the Federal Government as determined pursuant to scorekeeping guidelines.
‘‘(3) Baseline .—The baseline established pursuant to section 257 of the Balanced Budget and Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 907(b)(2)) for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program shall be recorded by the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office at the level prior to any transfers recorded pursuant to section 413(h) of this Act.’’.
 August 5, 1997 was the date of enactment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Pub. L. 105-33).
Reform Act of 1996 (also known as the “Freedom to Farm Act“) (Pub. L. 104-127), the enacted 1996 farm bill, temporarily suspended provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 and the Agricultural Act of 1949 which provided permanent authority for price support of certain agricultural commodities. The section made the temporary suspension of permanent agricultural price support law effective for the 1996 through 2002 crops of these commodities and from the date of enactment of the 1996 farm bill’s Title I through December 31, 2002 for milk.
In this context, the baseline should assume that pay levels are provided in amounts apart from the levels appropriated.
 The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a statistical agency within the Department of Labor. Its “Employment Cost Index” measures the change in the cost of labor, without regard to employment shifts among occupations and industries. It is published in the month following the reference months of March, June, September, and December.
This section is classified to the U.S. Code at 2 U.S.C. 907.
Pub. L. 101–508,§13101(e )(2), transferred section 251(a)(6)(I) of Pub. L. 99–177, which was classified to section 901(a)(6)(I) of this title, to Subsection (e) of this section.
Pub. L. 99–177, title II, §257, formerly §§251(a)(6)(I), 257, Dec. 12, 1985, 99 Stat. 1092 (Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985).
Pub. L. 100–119, title I, §§102(a), (b)(4)–(8), 104(c)(2), 106(b), Sept. 29, 1987, 101 Stat. 754, 773, 774, 777, 780 (Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987); renumbered §257.
Pub. L. 101–508, title XIII, §13101(b), (e)(1), (2), Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1388–589 , 1388-591, 1388-593 (Budget Enforcement Act of 1990) amended the original section 257, moving then paragraph (12) to section 250(c) of BBEDCA.
Pub. L. 105–33, title X, §10209(a), Aug. 5, 1997, 111 Stat. 710 (Budget Enforcement Act of 1997).
Pub. L. 113–67, div. A, title I, §121(9), Dec. 26, 2013, 127 Stat. 1175 (Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013).
Section 121 of Pub. L. 113–67 (BBA 2013) substituted “differences” for “differenes”.
Pub. L. 105–33, §10209(a)(2), added subparagraph (D).
Pub. L. 105–33, §10209(a)(3), substituted “domestic product chain-type price index” for “national product fixed-weight price index”.
Pub. L. 101–508, §13101(e)(1), amended section generally, substituting provisions relating to baseline for provisions relating to definitions.
Pub. L. 101–508, §13101(e)(2), redesignated section 901(a)(6)(I) of this Title 2, The Congress, as Subsection (e) of this section, and substituted “The” for “assuming, for purposes of this paragraph and subparagraph (A)(i) of paragraph (3), that the”.
Pub. L. 100–119, §102(a), amended section 901 of this title generally, adding Subsection (a)(6)(I). See 1990 Amendment note above.
Pub. L. 100–119, §102(b)(5), added paragraph (9).
Pub. L. 100–119, §106(b), added paragraph (10).
Pub. L. 100–119, §102(b)(6), added paragraph (11).
Pub. L. 100–119, §102(b)(7), added paragraph (12).
Pub. L. 100–119, §102(b)(8), added pars. (13) and (14).
Effective in the case of this Act and any subsequent Act making appropriations for the Legislative Branch, for purposes of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99–177), as amended [see Short Title note set out under section 900 of this title], or any other Act which requires a uniform percentage reduction in accounts in this Act and any subsequent Act making appropriations for the Legislative Branch, the accounts under the general heading ‘Senate’, and the accounts under the general heading ‘House of Representatives’, shall each be considered to be one appropriation account and one ‘program, project, and activity’.
Hereafter, for purposes of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99–177), as amended [see Short Title note set out under section 900 of this title], the term ‘program, project, and activity’ shall be synonymous with each appropriation account in this Act [see Tables for classification], except that the accounts under the general heading ‘House of Representatives’ shall be considered one appropriation account and one ‘program, project, and activity’, and the accounts under the general heading ‘Senate’ shall be considered one appropriation account and one ‘program, project, and activity’.
(a) In General.—Benefits which are payable in calendar year 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, or 1991, under programs listed in section 257(1)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99–177), [2 U.S.C. 907(1)(A)], including any cost-of-living adjustment in such benefits, shall not be subject to modification, suspension, or reduction in such calendar year pursuant to a Presidential order issued under such Act [see Short Title note set out under 2 U.S.C. 900].
(b) Definitions.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘cost-of-living adjustment’ means any increase or change in the amount of a benefit or in standards relating to such benefit under any provision of Federal law which requires such increase or change as a result of any change in the Consumer Price Index (or any component thereof) or any other index which measures costs, prices, or wages.
H. Rep. 101-964 (Conference Report, pp. 1170-71) 101st Cong., 2d Sess. (1990).
(9) The term “sequesterable resource” means new budget authority; unobligated balances; new loan guarantee commitments or limitations; new direct loan obligations, commitments, or limitations; spending authority as defined in section 401(c)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974; and obligation limitations for budget accounts, programs, projects, and activities that are not exempt from reduction or sequestration under this part.”.
(U) Government payment for annuitants, employees’ health benefits (24-0206-0-1-551).”.

References: §257
 §257
 §13101
 §10209
 §121
 §10209
 §10209
 §13101
 §13101
 §102
 §102
 §106
 §102
 §102
 §102