Public Laws
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987
Public Law 100–119
Summary
The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987 (Pub. L. 100-119) (BBEDCRA) amended the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Pub. L. 99-177) the United States Supreme Court found significant components of that Act unconstitutional and struck them down (Bowsher v. Synar (1986)).
BBEDCRA transferred responsibility for overseeing the sequestration from the Government Accountability Office to the Office of Management and Budget, it reset the Maximum Deficit Amounts, extended the date for the elimination of the deficit by two years, and made numerous other revisions to Congressional budget law. See the BBEDCRA in the Codex for its content.
General Information
Public Law: Pub. L. 100–119
Enacted: Sept. 29, 1987
Stat. At Large: 101 Stat. 754
Bill Number: H. J. Res. 324 (100th Congress)
Sponsor: None (introduced pursuant to the Gephardt Rule)
Note: BBEDCRA was enacted after significant parts of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Pub. L. 99-177) was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. See Bowsher v. Synar (1986).
Provisions
The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Pub. L. 99-177) set annual “maximum deficit amounts” in law to facilitate the elimination of the Federal budget deficit. A failure to comply with the targets would trigger “sequestration”, a procedure of automatic across-the-board spending cuts to achieve the intended deficit reduction. The sequestration process directed the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to estimate the reductions needed and provide the information to the Comptroller General of the United States. The Comptroller General heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is a Congressional support agency. As such, GAO the ministerial responsibility of making the the automatic reduction would lay with Congress as BBEDCA was originally enacted in 1985.
The U. S. Supreme Court ruled this part of BBEDCA unconstitutional in Bowsher v. Synar (1986), justifying the ruling that the Act violated the separation of powers. The Court determined that the the powers vested in the Comptroller General under the law “violate the Constitution’s command that Congress play no direct role in the execution of the laws.” It further stated:
“the Comptroller General has been improperly assigned executive powers … The Act’s provisions give him, not the President, the ultimate authority in determining what budget cuts are to be made. By placing the responsibility for execution of the Act in the hands of an officer who is subject to removal only by itself, Congress, in effect, has retained control over the Act’s execution, and has unconstitutionally intruded into the executive function.
Congress responded by amending BBEDCA, revising the sequestration process to bring comply with the complaints raised in Bowsher v. Synar. The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987 (BBEDCRA) transferred the administration of the sequestration process from GAO to the Office of Management and Budget, rectifying the Court’s perceived flaw in the law by giving it to an executive branch agency. BBEDCRA also increased the public debt limit and delayed by two years the deadline for passing a balanced budget.
BBEDCRA was signed by President Reagan on September 29, 1987.
