Budget Enforcement Levels
Floor Speech
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, P.L. 118-5, which Congress passed earlier this month, resolved a manufactured default crisis and avoided an economic catastrophe. In addition, the bipartisan bill provided a congressional budget for 2024.
Specifically, the legislation instructs the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget to file enforceable budgetary levels in the Senate consistent with current law. Today, I submit the required filing.
Section 121 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 requires the chairman to file a spending allocation for the Committee on Appropriations for 2024; spending allocations for other committees for 2024, 2024 through 2028, and 2024 through 2033; an aggregate spending level for 2024; aggregate revenue levels for 2024, 2024 through 2028, and 2024 through 2033; and aggregate levels of Social Security revenues and outlays for 2024, 2024 through 2028, and 2024 through 2033. Section 121 also requires the chairman to include a list of accounts eligible for advance appropriations.
The amounts included in this filing are consistent with the Congressional Budget Office's May 2023 baseline, adjusted for the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, including the discretionary spending limits established by that act. Because the legislation does not include budget enforcement for fiscal year 2023, it will not be possible to submit reports required by section 308(b) of the Congressional Budget Act until fiscal year 2024.
In addition, section 121 allows the deficit-neutral reserve fund in section 3003 of S. Con. Res. 14--117th Congress--to be updated by 2 fiscal years. Pursuant to that authority, that reserve fund shall be considered updated and available for use for legislation which does not increase the deficit for the time period of fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2033.
For purposes of enforcing the Senate's pay-as-you-go rule, which is found in section 4106 of the fiscal year 2018 congressional budget resolution, I am resetting the Senate's scorecard to zero for all fiscal years.
Section 111 of the act requires my counterpart, the chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, to file similar enforceable budgetary levels in the House of Representatives consistent with the discretionary limits in the act. That filing will help both Houses uphold the bipartisan agreement.
886.349 N/A Revised Nonsecurity Category/Nondefense............................... 703.651 N/A General Purpose Discretionary......................................... N/A 1,813.382 Memo: On-budget............................................................. 1,583.271 1,806.643 Off-budget............................................................ 6.729 6.739 Mandatory............................................................. 1,473.002 1,452.200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- N/A = not applicable. Budgetary changes related to program integrity initiatives and other adjustments pursuant
to section 251(b) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended by the Fiscal
Responsibility Act of 2023, will be held in reserve until consideration of legislation providing such funding.
``Revised security category'' means discretionary appropriations in budget function 050, while ``revised
nonsecurity category'' means discretionary appropriations other than in budget function 050. ALLOCATION OF SPENDING AUTHORITY TO SENATE COMMITTEE OTHER THAN APPROPRIATIONS
(Pursuant to Section 121 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and Section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974) ($ in billions) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024 2024-2028 2024-2033 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry: Budget Authority................................... 190.758 1,002.518 2,088.798 Outlays............................................ 191.517 972.954 1,974.649 Armed Services: Budget Authority................................... 277.969 1,193.836 2,117.074 Outlays............................................ 272.144 1,192.368 2,114.710 Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Budget Authority................................... 34.273 161.597 333.779 Outlays............................................ 7.051 -12.803 -70.708 Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Budget Authority................................... 24.239 107.446 196.019 Outlays............................................ 20.356 101.673 185.182 Energy and Natural Resources: Budget Authority................................... 8.811 39.714 77.966 Outlays............................................ 12.920 68.359 113.543 Environment and Public Works: Budget Authority................................... 63.847 325.494 654.349 Outlays............................................ 12.649 60.869 87.739 Finance: Budget Authority................................... 3,449.522 19,587.982 46,205.916 Outlays............................................ 3,458.376 19,589.956 46,199.103 Foreign Relations: Budget Authority................................... 43.978 220.169 440.898 Outlays............................................ 39.915 215.035 435.773 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: Budget Authority................................... 59.175 254.652 504.747 Outlays............................................ 85.410 295.186 521.242 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Budget Authority.................................. 178.828 941.599 1,986.949 Outlays............................................ 182.794 937.140 1,965.386 Indian Affairs: Budget Authority................................... 0.456 2.329 4.303 Outlays........................................... 1.445 4.304 6.252 Judiciary: Budget Authority.................................. 20.322 102.547 212.588 Outlays............................................ 24.903 109.571 217.340 Rules and Administration: Budget Authority................................... 0.045 0.225 0.460 Outlays............................................ 0.024 0.124 0.275 Intelligence: Budget Authority................................... 0.514 2.570 4.112 Outlays............................................ 0.514 2.570 4.112 Veterans' Affairs: Budget Authority................................... 210.295 1,243.056 2,961.841 Outlays........................................... 197.725 1,246.361 2,963.470 Small Business: Budget Authority.................................. 0.000 0.000 0.000 Outlays............................................ 0.120 0.130 0.130 Unassigned to Committee: Budget Authority................................... -1,267.733 -6,910.352 -15,632.915 Outlays........................................... -1,257.765 -6,854.818 -15,493.532 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Memorandum: Includes entitlements funded in annual appropriations acts. Budgetary effects of the Fiscal
Responsibility Act are assigned to the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which has
jurisdiction over the majority of the rescissions included in that law. BUDGET AGGREGATES
(Pursuant to Section 121 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and Section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974) ($ in billions) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2024 2024-2028 2024-2033 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Spending: Budget Authority............. 4,878.570 N/A N/A Outlays...................... 5,056.741 N/A N/A Revenue 3,651.838 20,174.716 45,331.678 Social Security: Outlays...................... 1,322.667 7,504.648 17,473.681 Revenue...................... 1,195.545 6,540.268 14,442.782 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ N/A = not applicable. Figures represent current law, including CBO's May
2023 baseline and the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of
2023. PAY-AS-YOU-GO SCORECARD FOR THE SENATE ($ in billions) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Balances ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fiscal Year 2023.......................................... 0 Fiscal Year 2024.......................................... 0 Fiscal Years 2024-2028.................................... 0 Fiscal Years 2024-2033.................................... 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACCOUNTS IDENTIFIED FOR ADVANCE APPROPRIATIONS (Pursuant to Section 121 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Financial Services and General Government: Payment to the Postal Service Fund Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: Employment and Training Administration Education for the Disadvantaged School Improvement Programs Career, Technical, and Adult Education Special Education Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development: Tenant-based Rental Assistance Project-based Rental Assistance ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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