§010.40 Fiscal Year 2015 – None (113th Congress)

§10. Budget Resolutions

Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2015

None (115th Congress)

Congress did not adopt a budget resolution.
(Deeming Resolution)

Legislative History

In the wake of the enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, which had included a potential deeming resolution in its text for both the House and Senate in lieu of those Chambers taking action on a budget, the House chose to adopt a budget resolution for fiscal year 2015. The Senate did not do so and chose to rely on section 116 (BBA 2013). The House initially ignored its authority under section 115 (BBA 2013) and drafted, marked-up, reported, and the House passed a concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2015.

That a budget resolution conference report was not going to occur since the Senate was both under Democratic majority and unlikely to come to another agreement with a Republican House was easily foreseeable. Despite this, and despite the fact that H. Con. Res. 96 (114th Congress) had already passed the House, the House Leadership, likely and mysteriously advised by the Budget Committee staff director, decided to use the deeming resolution in the BBA 2013 instead of the recently passed budget. Hence, section 115 (BBA 2013) was allowed to stay in effect as the deeming resolution for fiscal year 2015. It did this by applying the fiscal year 2014 budget resolution, H. Con. Res. 25 (113th Congress), to fiscal year 2015, instead of H. Con. Res. 96, which had specifically been passed by the House for that purpose (but had not been deemed in force).

This was formalized by the organizing resolution for the 114th Congress. It was not technically needed, since section 115 (BBA 2013) was sufficient as a deeming resolution for fiscal year 2015. Still section 3(e)(1) of H. Res. 5 (114th Congress) was drafted to make it at least somewhat closer to what the House had recently passed in H. Con. Res. 96 (113th Congress), to slightly ameliorate the poor judgement of not deeming that concurrent resolution in the first place.

Legislative Activity

House Action

Date	Actions Overview
04/04/2014	Introduced in House
04/04/2014	The House Committee on the Budget reported an original measure, H. Rept. 113-403, by Mr. Ryan (WI).
04/10/2014	Passed/agreed to in House: On agreeing to the resolution Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 219 – 205 (Roll no. 177).
04/11/2014	Senate Committee on the Budget discharged pursuant to Section 300 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.