BEA 1997 (Contents)
Budget Enforcement Act of 1997
Section 10107
Title X—Budget Enforcement and Process Provisions
Subtitle A—Amendments to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974
Sec. 10107. Amendments to section 303
(a) In general.—Section 303 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is amended to read as follows:
“concurrent resolution on the budget must be adopted before budget-related legislation is considered
“Sec. 303. (a) In General.—Until the concurrent resolution on the budget for a fiscal year has been agreed to, it shall not be in order in the House of Representatives, with respect to the first fiscal year covered by that resolution, or the Senate, with respect to any fiscal year covered by that resolution, to consider any bill or joint resolution, amendment or motion thereto, or conference report thereon that—
“(1) first provides new budget authority for that fiscal year;
“(2) first provides an increase or decrease in revenues during that fiscal year;
“(3) provides an increase or decrease in the public debt limit to become effective during that fiscal year;
“(4) in the Senate only, first provides new entitlement authority for that fiscal year; or
“(5) in the Senate only, first provides for an increase or decrease in outlays for that fiscal year.
“(b) Exceptions in the House.— In the House of Representatives, subsection (a) does not apply—
“(1)(A) to any bill or joint resolution, as reported, providing advance discretionary new budget authority that first becomes available for the first or second fiscal year after the budget year; or
“(B) to any bill or joint resolution, as reported, first increasing or decreasing revenues in a fiscal year following the fiscal year to which the concurrent resolution applies;
“(2) after May 15, to any general appropriation bill or amendment thereto; or
“(3) to any bill or joint resolution unless it is reported by a committee.
“(c) Application To Appropriation Measures in the Senate.—
“(1) In general.—Until the concurrent resolution on the budget for a fiscal year has been agreed to and an allocation has been made to the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate under section 302(a) for that year, it shall not be in order in the Senate to consider any appropriation bill or joint resolution, amendment or motion thereto, or conference report thereon for that year or any subsequent year.
“(2) Exception.—Paragraph (1) does not apply to appropriations legislation making advance appropriations for the first or second fiscal year after the year the allocation referred to in that paragraph is made.”.
(b) Conforming Amendment.—The item relating to section 303 in the table of contents set forth in section 1(b) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 303. Concurrent resolution on the budget must be adopted before budget-related legislation is considered.”.
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COUNSEL NOTES
Codification
This section was not classified to the U.S. Code.
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT OF MANAGERS
(H. CONF. REPT. 105-217)
The joint explanatory statement of managers for the conference committee on H.R. 2014 summarized this section as follows:
8. Amendments to section 303 of the Congressional Budget Act
HOUSE BILL (SECTION 11107)
The House bill makes several technical changes to Section 303(a) of the Budget Act which prohibits the consideration of spending legislation before Congress has agreed to a budget resolution. It eliminates references to new credit authority and new entitlement authority. In the future, legislation providing new entitlement authority will be scored as providing new budget authority which is also subject to section 303(a). Credit authority is already scored as new budget authority, in the amount of the subsidy.
SENATE AMENDMENT (SECTION 1606)
The Senate amendment repeals subsection (c) of section 303, which provides a process for the Senate to consider a resolution to waive this point of order. Since this point of order can be waived under section 904 of the Budget Act through a motion, the waiver resolution process is not needed.
CONFERENCE AGREEMENT (SECTION 10107)
The Conference agreement reflects the House bill with an amendment. The Conference agreement rewrites section 303 in its entirety to simplify this section, drop obsolete provisions, and make conforming changes to reflect changes made to other provisions in the Act. The Conference agreement retains the general objective of section 303: to discourage the Congress from considering budget- related legislation until the adoption of a budget resolution for a year.
The language of current section 303 is vague with respect to its application to appropriations measures in the Senate. Under section 302 of the Budget Act, allocations are made to the Senate Appropriations Committee for just the first year of a budget resolution (the budget year). The conference clarifies the application of this point of order to provide that it is out of order to consider an appropriations measure for a year until an allocation under section 302(a) has been made pursuant to the budget resolution for that year. The conference agreement retains the current law exception that allows appropriations measures to contain advance appropriations for the two years following that year. By ‘advance appropriations’, the conferees mean an appropriation which is first available in a year beyond the year for which the appropriation bill applies.
The conferees intend to clarify that section 303(a) is a gross test which looks at whether any provision within the measure provides new budget authority, increases revenue, etc. It is not a net test that looks at the sum of changes in budget authority, increases in revenue, etc. as is the case with sections 302(f) and 311(a).
U.S. Congress, Joint Explanatory Statement on the Committee of Conference on the Balanced Budget Act of 1997; (Conference Report), Committee on the Budget, House of Representatives, 105th Congress, 1st Session, Washington D.C. 1997, p.
Congressional Research service report
CRS issued a report on the Budget Enforcement Act of 1997 (Pub. L. 105-33), including this description of this section:
Section 10107. Amendments to Section 303. Section 303 of the CBA generally bars the consideration of spending, revenue, and debt-limit legislation for a fiscal year prior to the adoption of the budget resolution for that year. Section 10107 of the bill makes technical and conforming changes in Section 303(a) and (b). Also, Section 303(c) is deleted; the subsection set forth a procedure by which the Senate could waive Section 303 by adopting a special waiver resolution. (After the first several years under the CBA, the Senate began the practice of waiving Section 303 by motion or by unanimous consent rather than by waiver resolution.)
CRS – Budget Enforcement Act of 1997: Summary and Legislative History by Robert Keith (97-931 GOV) October 8, 1997, p. 12.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY NOTES
Pub. L. 105–33, title X, §10000, Nov. 5, 1990, 111 Stat. 677; (Budget Enforcement Act of 1997).
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Budget Counsel 