The Impoundment Control Act (ICA), enacted as Title X of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, established a new framework for congressional notification and review of rescissions requested by a President. The 1974 law requires the President to inform Congress of all proposed rescissions in a special message, containing specified information on each proposed rescission. With regard to congressional oversight of presidential rescissions, the ICA provides that the funds must be made available for obligation unless both houses of Congress take action to approve a rescission request included in the message received from the President within 45 days of "continuous session"; days in which either chamber is in recess for more than three days are not counted. In contrast, "enhanced rescission," briefly available under the Line Item Veto Act (LIVA) of 1996, altered the rescission framework to create a presumption favoring the President. Under enhanced rescission, spending reductions identified in special presidential messages remain permanently cancelled unless Congress enacts a disapproval bill. Should the President veto that disapproval bill, a two-thirds majority in both chambers would be needed to override the veto. As an alternative, "expedited rescission," instead of allowing Congress to ignore presidential recommendations for rescissions, facilitates congressional consideration of the rescission messages and an up-or-down vote by at least one house on the President's proposals. If either house disapproves the request, the other house need take no action because approval by both houses is necessary to make the rescission permanent. Expedited rescission bills focus on procedural changes in Congress and typically contain a detailed schedule to ensure immediate introduction of a measure to approve the President's rescission request, prompt reporting by committee or automatic discharge, special limits on floor amendments and debate, and so on. Under expedited rescission, congressional approval is still necessary to rescind the funding, but the fast-track procedures may help to encourage an up-or-down vote on the President's proposal. The expedited rescission approach has attracted support over the years, because it is generally regarded as transferring less power from Congress to the President than most other approaches that would modify the ICA framework. In 1992, 1993, and 1994, the House passed an expedited rescission bill each year . More recently, in the 109 th Congress the House passed H.R. 4890 , the Legislative Line Item Veto Act, as amended, on June 22, 2006. On January 25, 2011, Senator McCain, along with Senator Carper and 21 other original cosponsors, introduced S. 102 , the Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2011, which incorporates the Administration's expedited rescission proposal from 2010 and is virtually identical to S. 3474 from the 111 th Congress. On March 11, 2011, Congressman Van Hollen introduced a companion bill (by request) as H.R. 1043 , with the same title, but which has two slight differences from the Senate bills and is virtually identical to H.R. 5454 in the 111 th Congress. These measures would amend the ICA of 1974 to provide an expedited process for consideration of certain rescission requests from the President. Within 45 days after signing a bill into law, the President would be able to submit a package of rescissions for reducing or eliminating discretionary appropriations or non-entitlement non-appropriated funding contained in the bill as enacted. Such proposed rescissions from the President would be considered as a group and would be subject to expedited procedures in Congress, designed to make an up-or-down vote on the package more likely. More detailed consideration of these bills, along with some other expedited rescission measures from the 111 th Congress, is provided in the following section. President Obama sent his budget submission for FY2012 to Congress on February 7, 2011. As was the case with his previous two budgets, President Obama endorsed various proposals for reforming the budget process, including an expedited process for considering rescission requests (exemplified in S. 102 and H.R. 1043 ). The discussion accompanying the FY2012 submission stated, "In sum, the [expedited rescission] proposal provides the President with important, but limited powers that will allow the President and Congress to work together more effectively to eliminate unnecessary funding." On March 15, 2011, the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, held a hearing titled "Enhancing the President's Authority to Eliminate Wasteful Spending and Reduce the Budget Deficit." Four witnesses testified, including two from the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress and two from private sector entities. Later in this report, some possible issues for Congress relating to expedited rescission authority for the President are identified and examined under the two rubrics of budgetary savings and respective prerogatives of the President and Congress. At the March hearing in the Senate, such issues were considered. The witnesses seemed to concur that while budgetary savings to be achieved with expedited rescission might be relatively modest, the mechanism still may prove helpful in deficit reduction efforts. For example, Senator Carper stated in his opening remarks that while expedited rescission authority "is not a silver bullet or a magic solution to our fiscal problems," the approach "may well prove to be a useful tool in our toolbox." The witness from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget suggested that expedited rescission authority for the President might "increase [congressional] accountability and serve as a deterrent to Members for adding low-priority spending that is likely to be included in a Presidential rescissions package." There likewise appeared to be some consensus among the witnesses and Members present that S. 102 would not encounter the same constitutional problems cited by the Supreme Court in its decision striking down the 1996 Line Item Veto Act. The witnesses and most Members present at the hearing also tended to agree that providing expedited rescission authority for the President would not lead to any enhancement of power for the executive branch. Senator Carl Levin, however, indicated that he "couldn't disagree more" with this assessment. According to the Senator, expedited rescission would give the President additional power to advance his rescission proposals, particularly in the Senate. In the Senator's view, the expedited procedures in S. 102 that would mandate an up-or-down vote on a rescission package, without any amendments, without motions to table, and with very limited time for debate, embodied procedural restrictions not often employed in the Senate, and would unduly advantage passage of the Administration's rescission package in comparison to alternative rescission measures. On March 4, 2009, the Congressional Accountability and Line-Item Veto Act was reintroduced in the 111 th Congress. In the Senate, S. 524 was cosponsored by Senators Feingold and McCain, and in the House H.R. 1294 was introduced by Representatives Paul Ryan and Mark Kirk. Senator Gregg and cosponsor Senator Lieberman introduced S. 640 , the Second Look at Wasteful Spending Act of 2009, on March 19, 2009. S. 640 was similar to a bill in the 109 th Congress, S. 3521 (Title I) as reported by the Senate Budget Committee in 2006 (then chaired by Senator Gregg). Senator Carper, along with 20 cosponsors, introduced S. 907 , the "Budget Enforcement Legislative Tool Act of 2009," on April 28, 2009. The Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, on December 16, 2009, held a hearing on "Tools to Combat Deficits and Waste: Expedited Rescission Authority," and considered S. 524 , S. 640 , and S. 907 . The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on May 25, 2010, focusing on "The Legality and Efficacy of Line-Item Veto Proposals," with reference to the three expedited rescission measures pending in the Senate and the proposal from the Administration, later introduced as S. 3474 (see below). On May 24, 2010, President Obama transmitted an Administration draft bill providing for expedited rescission procedures to Congress, called the Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2010. As discussed already, slightly differing versions of the measure have been reintroduced in the 112 th Congress as S. 102 and H.R. 1043 . The proposal would provide expedited rescission procedures for consideration of certain requests from the President. Within 45 days after signing a bill into law, the President would be able to submit a package of rescissions for reducing or eliminating discretionary appropriations or non-entitlement mandatory spending contained in the bill as enrolled. The measures provide that certain proposed rescissions from the President would be considered as a group and would be subject to expedited procedures in Congress, designed to ensure an up-or-down vote on the package. On May 28, 2010, the Administration proposal was introduced as H.R. 5454 by Representative Spratt. On June 9, 2010, Senator Feingold introduced S. 3474 , with two changes from the Administration draft, as discussed below. Expedited rescission proposals received notable attention, but varied levels of support in the 111 th Congress. The hearings in the Senate by the Subcommittee on Financial Management and by the Subcommittee on the Constitution were both chaired by proponents of pending measures—Senator Carper and Senator Feingold. Both hearings were predominantly favorable in their treatment of an expedited process for certain rescissions requested by the President. On June 17, 2010, the House Budget Committee held a hearing focused explicitly on the "Administration's Expedited Rescission Proposal." The sole witness was the Acting Deputy Director of the Office of Management and budget (OMB), Dr. Jeffrey Liebman. This hearing revealed differences of opinion among Members present regarding the expedited rescission bills under consideration.