[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 126 Introduced in House (IH)]







                                    


105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 126

To establish procedures to provide for a deficit reduction lock-box and 
     related downward adjustment of discretionary spending limits.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 7, 1997

Mr. Crapo (for himself, Ms. Harman, Mr. Watts of Oklahoma, Mr. Schumer, 
   Mr. Royce, Mr. Goss, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Norwood, Mr. Hayworth, Mr. 
Coburn, Mrs. Morella, Mr. Talent, Mr. Bereuter, Mr. Burton of Indiana, 
  Mr. Canady of Florida, Mr. Frost, Mr. Inglis of South Carolina, Ms. 
  Molinari, Ms. Dunn, Mr. Greenwood, Mr. Burr of North Carolina, Mr. 
 Blunt, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Shays, Mrs. Myrick, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Foley, Mr. 
Goodlatte, Mr. Deal of Georgia, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Poshard, Mr. Klug, Mr. 
     Barrett of Wisconsin, Mr. Stenholm, Mr. White, and Mr. Fox of 
Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Budget, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for 
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
                          committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish procedures to provide for a deficit reduction lock-box and 
     related downward adjustment of discretionary spending limits.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Deficit Reduction Lock-box Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. DEFICIT REDUCTION LOCK-BOX LEDGER.

    (a) Establishment of Ledger.--Title III of the Congressional Budget 
Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

                  ``deficit reduction lock-box ledger

    ``Sec. 314. (a) Establishment of Ledger.--The Director of the 
Congressional Budget Office (hereinafter in this section referred to as 
the ``Director'') shall maintain a ledger to be known as the ``Deficit 
Reduction Lock-box Ledger''. The Ledger shall be divided into entries 
corresponding to the subcommittees of the Committees on Appropriations. 
Each entry shall consist of three parts: the `House Lock-box Balance'; 
the `Senate Lock-box Balance'; and the `Joint House-Senate Lock-box 
Balance'.
    ``(b) Components of Ledger.--Each component in an entry shall 
consist only of amounts credited to it under subsection (c). No entry 
of a negative amount shall be made.
    ``(c) Credit of Amounts to Ledger.--(1) The Director shall, upon 
the engrossment of any appropriation bill by the House of 
Representatives and upon the engrossment of that bill by the Senate, 
credit to the applicable entry balance of that House amounts of new 
budget authority and outlays equal to the net amounts of reductions in 
new budget authority and in outlays resulting from amendments agreed to 
by that House to that bill.
    ``(2) The Director shall, upon the engrossment of Senate amendments 
to any appropriation bill, credit to the applicable Joint House-Senate 
Lock-box Balance the amounts of new budget authority and outlays equal 
to--
            ``(A) an amount equal to one-half of the sum of (i) the 
        amount of new budget authority in the House Lock-box Balance 
        plus (ii) the amount of new budget authority in the Senate 
        Lock-box Balance for that bill; and
            ``(B) an amount equal to one-half of the sum of (i) the 
        amount of outlays in the House Lock-box Balance plus (ii) the 
        amount of outlays in the Senate Lock-box Balance for that bill.
    ``(3) Calculation of Lock-Box Savings in Senate.--For purposes of 
calculating under this section the net amounts of reductions in new 
budget authority and in outlays resulting from amendments agreed to by 
the Senate on an appropriation bill, the amendments reported to the 
Senate by its Committee on Appropriations shall be considered to be 
part of the original text of the bill.
    ``(d) Definition.--As used in this section, the term `appropriation 
bill' means any general or special appropriation bill, and any bill or 
joint resolution making supplemental, deficiency, or continuing 
appropriations through the end of a fiscal year.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents set forth in 
section 1(b) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 
1974 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 313 the 
following new item:

``Sec. 314. Deficit reduction lock-box ledger.''.

SEC. 3. TALLY DURING HOUSE CONSIDERATION.

    There shall be available to Members in the House of Representatives 
during consideration of any appropriations bill by the House a running 
tally of the amendments adopted reflecting increases and decreases of 
budget authority in the bill as reported.

SEC. 4. DOWNWARD ADJUSTMENT OF 602(a) ALLOCATIONS AND SECTION 602(b) 
              SUBALLOCATIONS.

    (a) Allocations.--Section 602(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974 is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(5) Upon the engrossment of Senate amendments to any 
        appropriation bill (as defined in section 314(d)) for a fiscal 
        year, the amounts allocated under paragraph (1) or (2) to the 
        Committee on Appropriations of each House upon the adoption of 
        the most recent concurrent resolution on the budget for that 
        fiscal year shall be adjusted downward by the amounts credited 
        to the applicable Joint House-Senate Lock-box Balance under 
        section 314(c)(2). The revised levels of budget authority and 
        outlays shall be submitted to each House by the chairman of 
the Committee on the Budget of that House and shall be printed in the 
Congressional Record.''.
    (b) Suballocations.--Section 602(b)(1) of the Congressional Budget 
Act of 1974 is amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: 
``Whenever an adjustment is made under subsection (a)(5) to an 
allocation under that subsection, the chairman of the Committee on 
Appropriations of each House shall make downward adjustments in the 
most recent suballocations of new budget authority and outlays under 
subparagraph (A) to the appropriate subcommittees of that committee in 
the total amounts of those adjustments under section 314(c)(2). The 
revised suballocations shall be submitted to each House by the chairman 
of the Committee on Appropriations of that House and shall be printed 
in the Congressional Record.''.

SEC. 5. PERIODIC REPORTING OF LEDGER STATEMENTS.

    Section 308(b)(1) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is 
amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: ``Such reports 
shall also include an up-to-date tabulation of the amounts contained in 
the ledger and each entry established by section 314(a).''.

SEC. 6. DOWNWARD ADJUSTMENT OF DISCRETIONARY SPENDING LIMITS.

    The discretionary spending limits for new budget authority and 
outlays for any fiscal year set forth in section 601(a)(2) of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as adjusted in strict conformance 
with section 251 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control 
Act of 1985, shall be reduced by the amounts set forth in the final 
regular appropriation bill for that fiscal year or joint resolution 
making continuing appropriations through the end of that fiscal year. 
Those amounts shall be the sums of the Joint House-Senate Lock-box 
Balances for that fiscal year, as calculated under section 602(a)(5) of 
the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. That bill or joint resolution 
shall contain the following statement of law: ``As required by section 
6 of the Deficit Reduction Lock-box Act of 1997, for fiscal year 
[insert appropriate fiscal year] and each outyear, the adjusted 
discretionary spending limit for new budget authority shall be reduced 
by $ [insert appropriate amount of reduction] and the adjusted 
discretionary limit for outlays shall be reduced by $ [insert 
appropriate amount of reduction] for the budget year and each 
outyear.'' Notwithstanding section 904(c) of the Congressional Budget 
Act of 1974, section 306 of that Act as it applies to this statement 
shall be waived. This adjustment shall be reflected in reports under 
sections 254(g) and 254(h) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
Control Act of 1985.

SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    (a) In General.--This Act shall apply to all appropriation bills 
making appropriations for fiscal year 1998 or any subsequent fiscal 
year.
    (b) Definition.--As used in this section, the term ``appropriation 
bill'' means any general or special appropriation bill, and any bill or 
joint resolution making supplemental, deficiency, or continuing 
appropriations through the end of a fiscal year.
                                 <all>