[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2191 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2191

To amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 regarding procedures for 
budget resolutions and to amend title 31, United States Code, to direct 
                     repayment of the public debt.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 17, 1997

 Mr. Neumann (for himself, Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Livingston, 
  Mr. Kasich, Mr. Paxon, Mr. Ballenger, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, Mr. 
Barton of Texas, Mr. Bass, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Bono, Mr. Bryant, Mr. Burr of 
 North Carolina, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Chabot, Mrs. 
 Chenoweth, Mr. Christensen, Mr. Coburn, Mr. Condit, Mr. Cooksey, Mr. 
Crapo, Mrs. Cubin, Mr. Dickey, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Dreier, Mr. Ehrlich, 
  Mr. English of Pennsylvania, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Ewing, Mr. Foley, Mr. 
 Forbes, Mr. Fox of Pennsylvania, Mr. Franks of New Jersey, Mr. Goode, 
Mr. Graham, Ms. Granger, Mr. Gutknecht, Mr. Hastings of Washington, Mr. 
Hayworth, Mr. Herger, Mr. Hill, Mr. Hobson, Mr. Hoekstra, Mr. Horn, Mr. 
   Hostettler, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Istook, Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, Mr. 
 Jones, Mr. Kingston, Mr. Klug, Mr. Largent, Mr. LaTourette, Mr. Lewis 
 of Kentucky, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Manzullo, Mr. Metcalf, Mr. 
 Minge, Mrs. Myrick, Mr. Nethercutt, Mr. Ney, Mr. Nussle, Mr. Parker, 
Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Radanovich, 
  Mr. Ramstad, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Royce, Mr. Ryun, Mr. Salmon, Mr. 
Scarborough, Mr. Bob Schaffer of Colorado, Mr. Shays, Mrs. Linda Smith 
of Washington, Mr. Adam Smith of Michigan, Mr. Snowbarger, Mr. Souder, 
Mr. Talent, Mr. Tauzin, Mr. Taylor of Mississippi, Mr. Thornberry, Mr. 
Thune, Mr. Tiahrt, Mr. Traficant, Mr. Wamp, Mr. Watts of Oklahoma, Mr. 
     Weldon of Florida, Mr. Weller, Mr. Whitfield, and Mr. Wicker) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
 the Budget, and in addition to the Committees on Rules, and Ways and 
 Means, 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 amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 regarding procedures for 
budget resolutions and to amend title 31, United States Code, to direct 
                     repayment of the public debt.

    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 ``National Debt Repayment Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. CONTENT OF CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS ON THE BUDGET.

    Section 301(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is amended 
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(j) Specific Requirement if Budget is in Surplus.--(1) Beginning 
with the concurrent resolution on the budget for the first fiscal year 
after there is a surplus, each such resolution shall set forth totals 
of budget outlays and total Federal revenues for the budget year and 
each fiscal year contained in resolution such that the annual rate of 
change in total budget outlays shall be at least 1 percentage point 
lower than the annual rate of change in total Federal revenues for each 
such year.
    ``(2) Congress may waive paragraph (1)--
            ``(A) for any fiscal year in which a declaration of war is 
        in effect;
            ``(B) for any fiscal year in which the United States is 
        engaged in military conflict which causes an imminent and 
        serious military threat to national security and is so declared 
        by a joint resolution, adopted by a majority of the whole 
        number of each House of the Congress, that becomes law; or
            ``(C) for the budget year and the next fiscal year, if real 
        economic growth has been negative for two consecutive calendar 
        quarters.''.

SEC. 3. PUBLIC DEBT REPAYMENT.

    Section 3101 of title 31 of the United States Code is amended by 
adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(d) The Secretary of the Treasury shall use any budget surplus 
for a fiscal year as follows:
            ``(1) One-third to exchange any special issue nonmarketable 
        Government bonds in the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance 
        Trust Fund or the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund with 
        marketable Government securities.
            ``(2) One-third to be invested in marketable Government 
        securities and held in a `Tax Cut Offset Trust Fund' at the 
        Treasury for use as Congress, by law, directs to offset future 
        revenue reductions.
            ``(3) One-third to exchange any special issue nonmarketable 
        Government securities with marketable Government securities in 
        the following funds in the following amounts:
                    ``(A) 90 percent of the one-third amount to 
                exchange nonmarketable assets in the Highway Trust 
                Fund,
                    ``(B) 10 percent of the one-third amount to 
                exchange nonmarketable assets shall be dedicated to the 
                Hazardous Substance Superfund.
            ``(4) When the Highway Trust Fund and the Hazardous 
        Substance Superfund no longer hold nonmarketable Government 
        securities, then one-third of the annual surplus shall be used 
        to exchange any special issue nonmarketable Government 
        securities with marketable Government securities in other 
        Government trust funds. When all Government trust funds no 
        longer hold nonmarketable Government securities, the Secretary 
        of the Treasury shall direct that one-third of the surplus be 
        used for repayment of debt held by the public.
            ``(5) When the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance 
        Trust Fund or the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund no 
        longer hold nonmarketable Government securities, the Secretary 
        of the Treasury shall direct that one-third of the surplus be 
        used for the repayment of debt held by the public.''.

SEC. 4. BUDGETARY TREATMENT OF GOVERNMENT TRUST FUNDS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law except 
the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, the receipts and disbursements of the 
funds not to exceed an amount equal to the value of marketable 
Government securities contained in any trust fund--
            (1) shall not be counted as new budget authority, outlays, 
        receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of--
                    (A) the budget of the United States Government as 
                submitted by the President,
                    (B) the congressional budget (including allocations 
                of budget authority and outlays provided therein), or
                    (C) the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
                Control Act of 1985; and
            (2) shall be exempt from any general budget limitation 
        imposed by statute on expenditures and net lending (budget 
        outlays) of the United States Government.
    (b) Reimbursement of the Treasury.--Upon expenditure from a 
Government trust fund of any money not counted in subsection (a), the 
Secretary of the Treasury shall sell a corresponding amount of 
marketable Government securities from the trust fund and reduce the 
trust fund balance accordingly.
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