[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4320 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4320

To amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to require long-term cost 
                 benefit analyses of introduced bills.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 29, 2012

  Mr. Fattah introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Rules, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, 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 to require long-term cost 
                 benefit analyses of introduced bills.

    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 ``Reinvesting and Ensuring America's 
Ability to Lead Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The bedrock of the Nation's economic strength and 
        future growth will be directly attributed to the robust Federal 
        investment in critical areas such as education, science, 
        technology, engineering, and mathematics.
            (2) Recognizing the importance of education and its role in 
        maintaining America's position as an economic global leader, 
        President George H.W. Bush stated that ``U.S. students must be 
        the first in the world in math and science achievement. Every 
        American adult must be a skilled, literate worker and 
        citizen.''.
            (3) As President Bill Clinton recognized when he created 
        the National Economic Council in 1992, ``The currency of 
        national strength in this new era will be denominated not only 
        in ships and tanks and planes, but in diplomas and patents and 
        paychecks.''.
            (4) Recognizing diplomas and patents will not occur without 
        investing in education, President George W. Bush stated that 
        ``we must address the low standing of American test scores 
        amongst industrialized nations in math and science, the very 
        subjects most likely to affect our future competitiveness''.
            (5) Similarly, President Obama has stated that America's 
        future economic growth and international competitiveness depend 
        on our Nation's willingness to educate, invest, and innovate.
            (6) As stated in a recent report from the National Economic 
        Council, the Nation must ``create the jobs and industries of 
        the future by doing what America does best--investing in the 
        creativity and imagination of our people. To win the future, we 
        must out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the 
        world.''.
            (7) Accordingly, Congress should be provided the means to 
        evaluate legislative worth beyond its impact to the annual 
        budget.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT OF 1974.

    Section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 653) 
is amended by inserting ``(a)'' after ``sec. 402.'' and by adding at 
the end the following new subsection:
    ``(b)(1) The Director of the Congressional Budget Office shall, to 
the extent practicable, prepare a ten-year long-term cost benefit 
analysis for each introduced bill or resolution of a public character 
that determines its impact on American global competitiveness as 
defined by the Congressional Budget Office.
    ``(2) The Director of the Congressional Budget Office shall devise 
criteria to evaluate American global competitiveness, including the 
bill or resolution's impact on--
            ``(A) job creation;
            ``(B) economic growth;
            ``(C) consumption;
            ``(D) investments; and
            ``(E) savings.
    ``(3) The analysis referred to in paragraph (1) shall evaluate 
whether the introduced bill or resolution will positively or negatively 
impact America's economic ability to compete globally compared to 
member nations of the Group of Twenty, or G-20, which comprise of 19 
country members and the European Union, accounting 90 percent of global 
gross domestic product (GDP) and 80 percent of global trade.''.
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