Cyclopedia
Section 302(c)
Congressional Budget Act of 1974
Summary
Section 302(c) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 states a point of order prohibiting the consideration of any measure within the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committees once it has received a section 302(a) allocation (under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974) but has not acted to provide its subcommittees with suballocations under section 302(b) (CBA). .
Once a budget resolution is adopted, the Appropriations Committees must meet and vote to report the suballocations, which then are used to enforce the limitation on that specific bill (or joint resolution) providing appropriations, since any amendment breaching that level will cause a section 302(f) (CBA) point of order.
In the House, 302(b) suballocations have been rendered irrelevant, except for necessity of waiving this point of order, since in the 115th Congress, clause 2(g) of rule XXI has made any net increase in budget authority offered to an appropriations measure to be subject to a point of order. This effectively supersedes the 302(b) suballocation. That section reads as follows:
(g) An amendment to a general appropriation bill shall not be in order if proposing a net increase in the level of budget authority in the bill.
Section 2(c) of H. Res. 5. (c)(115th Congress) added this provision to clause 2 of title XXI. This moved the point of order it includes from the Separate Orders, where it was part of Spending Reduction Accounts and makes it part of the Standing Rules of the House. By making any “net increase” in budget authority a violation of the rules, clause 2(g) renders the suballocations made under section 302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 effectively irrelevant. For Appropriations measures that would ordinarily require an adjustment to bring the bill into compliance with the levels provided for by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, will violate the 302(a) allocation or 302(b) suballocation, since the amount of the adjustment would have to be in the underlying bill to begin with, rather than adjusted prior to its consideration. If the waiver were to be given absent this point of order, then amendments would be able to take advantage of the waiver and no controls would be available against increasing the levels in the bill. With this point of order, the bill can come to the floor at any level, but be protected against such amendments, since they would cause a “net increase” in budget authority.
The text of the section stating the point of order is brief and reads a follows:
(c) Point of Order
After the Committee on Appropriations has received an allocation pursuant to subsection (a) for a fiscal year, it shall not be in order in the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report within the jurisdiction of that committee providing new budget authority for that fiscal year, until that committee makes the suballocations required by subsection (b).
Section 302 is classified to the U.S. Code at 2 U.S.C. 637.
Deschler’s Precedents: Chapter 41 (Budget Process)
§ 11. Section 302
Section 302(c)
The [Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985] reforms of 1985 amended section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act to create a new point of order related to section 302(b) suballocations. This point of order, found in section 302(c), prohibited the consideration of any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion or conference report providing new budget authority or new spending authority unless and until the committee of jurisdiction filed a report dividing its overall section 302(a) allocation into section 302(b) suballocations among its subcommittees.[1] If the committee had not received a section 302(a) allocation at the time the measure was considered, the point of order did not apply.
Prior to this change, concurrent resolutions on the budget would occasionally contain a separate requirement that no measure providing new budget or spending authority would be considered until the committee of jurisdiction filed its section 302(b) report.[2]
When the Budget Enforcement Act of 1997 eliminated the requirement that all legislative committees file reports subdividing their section 302(a) allocations among their subcommittees, and instead maintained this requirement only for the Committee on Appropriations, it likewise changed the operation of section 302(c) to apply only to that committee. Section 302(c) states that after the Committee on Appropriations has received its section 302(a) allocation, no bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion or conference report within the jurisdiction of such committee that provides new budget authority may be considered until the committee has filed the report dividing its section 302(a) allocation into section 302(b) suballocations for each of its subcommittees.
The section 302(c) point of order is fundamentally about timing. Whether the point of order will be sustained rests solely on: (1) the threshold question of whether the committee of jurisdiction (now applicable only to the Committee on Appropriations) has received a section 302(a) allocation; and (2) whether the committee has filed the requisite section 302(b) report subdividing the section 302(a) allocation. The point of order will not lie before the Committee on Appropriations has received its section 302(a) allocation, and neither will it lie after the committee has filed the necessary report.
[Notes]
[1] For an example of such a report being filed, see 136 Cong. Rec. 14612, 101st Cong. 2d Sess., June 19, 1990.
[2] See 130 Cong. rec. 28049, 98th Cong. 2d Sess., Oct. 1, 1984; and 128 Cong. rec. 14546, 97th Cong. 2d Sess., June 22, 1982. See § 4, supra.
Deschler’s Precedents of the U.S. House of Representatives, Volume 18, Chapter 41, §16, p. 246-252.
Statutory Text
Text from Title III of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974:
Sec. 302. (a) […]
(b) […]
(c) Point of Order
After the Committee on Appropriations has received an allocation pursuant to subsection (a) for a fiscal year, it shall not be in order in the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report within the jurisdiction of that committee providing new budget authority for that fiscal year, until that committee makes the suballocations required by subsection (b).
References
CRS – Points of Order in the Congressional Budget Process (97-865) October 20, 2015
CRS – Allocations and Subdivisions in the Congressional Budget Process (RS20144) November 29, 2010
Deschler’s Precedents – Chapter 41: §9. Section 303
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