H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress)
Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2018
TITLE II—RECONCILIATION AND RELATED MATTERS
sec. 201. reconciliation in the house of representatives.
(a) Submissions Providing For Reconciliation.—Not later than October 6, 2017,[1] the committees named in subsection (b) shall submit their recommendations on changes in laws within their jurisdictions to the Committee on the Budget that would achieve the specified reduction in the deficit for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(b) Instructions.—
(1) Committee on agriculture.—The Committee on Agriculture shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $10,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(2) Committee on armed services.—The Committee on Armed Services shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $1,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(3) Committee on education and the workforce.—The Committee on Education and the Workforce shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $20,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(4) Committee on energy and commerce.—The Committee on Energy and Commerce shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $20,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(5) Committee on financial services.—The Committee on Financial Services shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $14,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(6) Committee on homeland security.—The Committee on Homeland Security shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $3,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(7) Committee on the judiciary.—The Committee on the Judiciary shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $45,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.[2]
(8) Committee on natural resources.—The Committee on Natural Resources shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $5,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(9) Committee on oversight and government reform.—The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $32,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(10) Committee on veterans’ affairs.—The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $1,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
(11) Committee on ways and means.—The Committee on Ways and Means shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce the deficit by $52,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027
Counsel Notes
Comments
These reconciliation instructions are notable if only for their lack of any “related matter” as indicated from the Title heading. While such headings have no substantive importance, they usually indicate something. This contrasts with recent budget resolutions which included reconciliation instructions that included matter related to estimates or accompanying procedures.
In section 201, subsection (a) directs the 11 committees named in subsection (b) to submit recommendations by October 17, 2017. Subsection (a) does not include any mention of what the Budget Committee is to do with the submissions, which differs from the normal practice of including this language from H. Con. Res. 112: “After receiving those recommendations, such committee shall report to the House a reconciliation bill carrying out all such recommendations without substantive revision.” This omission has no procedural effect, but leaves the text somewhat incomplete.
Section 322(e), which appears in title III of the resolution text, includes authority for the Chair of the House Budget Committee to “adjust other appropriate levels” of the resolution “depending on congressional action on pending reconciliation legislation.” This is one of the strangest provisions ever placed in a budget resolution. It is impossible to really understand what this is supposed to mean. See the Comment on section 322, infra.
Section 324 spells out that the Chair may adjust levels depending on an update by the Congressional Budget Office of its baseline later in the year. Among the adjustments listed is “reconciliation targets” though with no guidance as to what form these might be relative to the CBO update. See the Comment on section 324, infra.
Counsel Footnotes
[1] Though reconciliation directives must include a date by which committees must submit their recommendations to the Budget Committees, no penalty, such as bringing into question its privileged status, occurs if the committees miss this date. See, for example, H.R.3762, the reconciliation bill vetoed by President Obama on January 8, 2016. The House Budget Committee report (H. Rept. 114-293) stated committee legislation was “to be submitted to the Committees on the Budget of the House and Senate by July 24, 2015” but admitted that “in the House, the Committee on the Budget accepted submissions from the three reconciled committees … on October 2, 2015.” While that report is undoubtedly the worst report ever produced by the House Budget Committee, it does indicate this accurately.
[2] To direct the House Judiciary Committee with reducing the deficit (presumably direct spending) by $45 billion over ten years is indicative of a specific policy that must have been assumed. The directive for a reduction in direct spending for the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was $300 million over five years. The Judiciary Committee has very little in the way of direct spending in the programs it oversees. The presumption must be that it involves the reform of the medical malpractice laws, which achieves great savings relates to amending liability laws. This is, of course, pure speculation, and these reductions could be made any way the committee can find — other policies may have been found to achieve this magnitude of spending reduction within the Committee’s jurisdiction.
Report on Budget Resolution House Budget Committee
(H. Rept. 115-240, Report on H. Con. Res. 71 (FY2018)
Section-by-Section
TITLE II—RECONCILIATION AND RELATED MATTERS
Section 201. Reconciliation in the House of Representatives.
Section 201 sets forth reconciliation instructions to 11 authorizing committees in the House of Representatives. These instructions are optional under section 301(b) of the Budget Act.
Subsection (a) specifies a deadline of 6 October 2017 for the instructed authorizing committees to submit reconciliation legislation to the Committee on the Budget.
Subsection (b) sets forth reconciliation instructions to 11 authorizing committees, pursuant to section 310 of the Budget Act, to achieve specified amounts of deficit reduction. The instructed committees have jurisdiction over direct spending for which savings are assumed in the budget resolution. The instructed committees and the amounts of reconciled savings are as follows:
| Committee on Agriculture | $10,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Armed Services | $1,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Education and the Workforce | $20,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Energy and Commerce | $20,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Financial Services | $14,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Homeland Security | $3,000,000,000 |
| Committee on the Judiciary | $45,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Natural Resources | $5,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Oversight and Government Reform | $32,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Veterans’ Affairs | $1,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Ways and Means | $52,000,000,000 |
This budget resolution follows the convention of not reconciling Senate committees and assumes that instructions to Senate authorizing committees will be incorporated in any final budget agreement.
The committees are instructed to achieve these specified amounts through deficit reduction rather than through changes in budget authority, outlays, or revenue.
The reconciled amounts act as a floor, not a ceiling, on the required savings for each committee. The targets are for the total of the 10-fiscal-year period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027. These targets will provide the committees maximum flexibility in the construction of savings.
A central tenet of the reconciliation process is that the authorizing committees determine their own policies as long as they meet their reconciliation targets. As such, the reconciled amounts may be based on policy assumptions in the budget resolution, but the authorizing committees can meet them with any combination of policies within their jurisdiction that achieves the required level of savings.
The Committee on Ways and Means is reconciled an amount of deficit reduction in lieu of specific changes in both direct spending and revenue because it has jurisdiction over both direct spending programs and most sources of revenue. It is the clear intent that the committee will include deficit neutral, comprehensive tax reform in its submission in addition to achieving $52 billion in deficit reduction over the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.
All reconciled committees are required to mark up legislation that meets their reconciliation targets and submit the legislation to the Committee on the Budget rather than reporting the legislation to the House.
Other than submitting their legislation to the Committee on the Budget, the authorizing committees are expected to follow regular order in complying with House and Committee rules related to markup procedures and reporting requirements.
The Committee on the Budget will then combine all of the submissions and report the bill to the House. Under section 310(b) of the Budget Act, the Committee on the Budget must report the submissions without substantive revision.
[pp. 321-322]
* * * * * * *
Report Section “Reconciliation”:
RECONCILIATION
Section 310 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 [Budget Act] sets out a special procedure for making changes in direct spending, revenue, or the debt limit. Under the procedure, called reconciliation, a concurrent resolution on the budget may direct one or more authorizing committees to produce legislation making changes in any of these three categories, to bring their levels into compliance with the resolution’s assumed changes in direct spending or revenue. To be valid, reconciliation directives must be included in a concurrent resolution on the budget adopted by both the House and Senate.
In general, reconciliation directives include the amount of budgetary change to be achieved; the time period over which such budgetary change should be measured; and a deadline by which the authorizing committees must report legislation. When more than one authorizing committee receives reconciliation directives, each committee considers legislation to comply with these directives as it would any other bill, but the legislative text and other materials are submitted to the Committee on the Budget instead of being reported to the House. The Committee on the Budget then combines the submissions, without substantive revision, into a single measure and reports it to the House. If only one authorizing committee received reconciliation directives, that committee reports its legislation directly to the House.
The Budget Committee’s authority in this procedure is solely over the budgetary change each committee is to achieve. Nothing in the instructions predetermines, promotes, or assumes any specific policy change to be made under such instructions. The committees of jurisdiction have maximum flexibility in determining what policies they develop to achieve their budgetary targets.
In the House, the Committee on Rules reports a special rule governing the consideration of a reconciliation bill. Typically, the rule allows for two or three hours of general debate equally divided between majority and minority. The Committee on the Budget determines whether an authorizing committee has complied with its reconciliation directives and relies solely on the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates when determining compliance. Under Section 310 of the Budget Act, authorizing committees must comply with reconciliation directives. If an authorizing committee fails to comply with its directives, the Committee on Rules may make in order amendments that achieve the required budgetary changes pursuant to Section 311(d)(5) of the Budget Act.
A reconciliation bill is a privileged measure in the Senate. Distinct from most Senate bills, debate is limited to 20 hours and requires only a simple majority to pass (51 votes) rather than the 60 votes otherwise required for cloture.
In the Senate, the ‘‘Byrd Rule’’ (Section 313 of the Budget Act) limits the content of a reconciliation bill. Under the Byrd Rule, provisions that are considered ‘‘extraneous’’ can be stricken from the bill if a point of order is raised. The provision may remain, however, if 60 Senators vote to waive the Byrd Rule. If a point of order is raised and the rule is not waived, a provision found to violate the Byrd Rule is removed from the bill or conference report and the measure is sent back to the House. The House may then pass the amended bill or conference report, amend it and send it back to the Senate, or decline to consider it.
This Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2018, as reported by the Committee on the Budget, provides for such reconciliation legislation. It instructs 11 authorizing committees to submit changes in law necessary to achieve a minimum of $203 billion in net deficit reduction over the period of fiscal years 2018 through 2027.595 Each authorizing committee must submit legislative text and associated material to the Committee on the Budget no later than 6 October 2017. The instruction to the Committee on Ways and Means has dual policy goals: to develop comprehensive, deficit-neutral reform of Federal taxation, and to achieve the designated amount of deficit reduction. Under the Congressional Budget Act, the budget resolution cannot dictate specific policy reforms. Consequently, this resolution does not expressly define the types of legislative provisions to be developed by the Committee on Ways and Means. Nevertheless, it is the intent of the resolution’s reconciliation instructions that the Committee on Ways and Means will develop comprehensive deficit neutral tax reform legislation and report such legislative language to the Committee on the Budget.
Several features of these directives are important to note.
First, the principal goal of these instructions is to drive much needed reform of the government’s major benefit programs. As detailed throughout this report, many of these programs—along with being unnecessarily costly—are failing the very people they were intended to serve. Income support programs often lure their beneficiaries into a cycle of dependency, depriving them of opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency. The Medicaid Program delivers substandard care to the Nation’s most vulnerable—if they can get health care at all. Medicare needlessly limits retirees’ choices of health plans—and besides is on a course to bankruptcy. Maintaining this failed apparatus is unacceptable. These reconciliation directives start turning Federal benefit programs onto a different course. Reforming these programs will also make them more efficient. They will spend less than they would otherwise, and thereby help Congress toward the important goal of balancing the budget.
As noted above, however, nothing in the instructions predetermines in any way the policies to be adopted. Those decisions lie entirely in the hands of the committees of jurisdiction.
Second, the instructions in this resolution represent the beginning of a process, not the totality of the overall fiscal plan. The total deficit reduction amount required is a first installment on the path toward balancing the budget by 2027. The government’s chronic deficits and mounting debt developed over a number of years of profligate spending and aimless fiscal policy. It will be corrected only through a sustained commitment to spending restraint. The Committee assumes future budget resolutions will include further reconciliation instructions calling for additional savings until, step by step, the goal of balance is achieved. Moreover, the net deficit reduction directed here—along with the specific savings amount for each committee—are considered minimums. Committees are expected to achieve at least those savings amounts, and substantially more wherever possible.
Third, this down payment on balancing the budget is no trivial amount in itself. It would be, in fact, the largest enacted deficit reduction in 20 years—since the historic Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Of note: Unlike previous reconciliation measures that decade, the Balanced Budget Act contained no tax increases; all its savings resulted from slowing the growth of direct spending by what was then estimated at $424 billion over 10 years.596 This was coupled with a tax reduction of an estimated $275 billion over 10 years.597 The result of this combination? A plan intended to balance the budget by 2002 yielded surpluses within a year after enactment.
Fourth, whatever reforms the authorizing committees develop, they will entail permanent changes in policy, not merely one-time savings. Further, their fiscal benefits accumulate over time, so that the savings grow each year.
The specific committees receiving instructions in this resolution, and their minimum required savings amounts, are the following:
| Committee on Agriculture | $10,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Armed Services | $1,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Education and the Workforce | $20,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Energy and Commerce | $20,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Financial Services | $14,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Homeland Security | $3,000,000,000 |
| Committee on the Judiciary | $45,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Natural Resources | $5,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Oversight and Government Reform | $32,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Veterans’ Affairs | $1,000,000,000 |
| Committee on Ways and Means | $52,000,000,000 |
As noted previously, the instruction to the Committee on Ways and Means is intended for the development of comprehensive, deficit-neutral tax reform as well deficit reduction.
__________
595 Although a portion of these savings are viewed as offsetting the budget’s increase in defense spending in fiscal year 2018, the defense spending is a one-year increase in discretionary spending. The reconciled savings here are entirely from permanent changes in law in direct spending programs.
596 Congressional Budget Office, CBO Memorandum: Budgetary Implications of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, December 1997.
597 See the Conference Report on the ‘‘Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997’’ (H.R. 2014), p. 807.
[pp.343-345]
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Budget Counsel 