[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6365 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6365

To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 
to replace the sequester established by the Budget Control Act of 2011.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 10, 2012

   Mr. West introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                        Committee on the Budget

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 
to replace the sequester established by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

    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 Security and Job Protection 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Current law requires that there be across-the-board 
        cuts, known as a ``sequester'', imposed on January 2, 2013. The 
        sequester will result in a 10 percent reduction in non-military 
        personnel programs of the Department of Defense and an 8 
        percent reduction in certain domestic programs, such as the 
        National Institutes of Health (NIH) and border security.
            (2) Intended as a mechanism to force action, there is 
        bipartisan agreement that the sequester going into place would 
        undercut key responsibilities of the Federal Government.
            (3) As the Administration stated in its fiscal year 2013 
        budget request, ``[Sequestration] would lead to significant 
        cuts to critical domestic programs such as education and 
        research and cuts to defense programs that could undermine our 
        national security. . . . [C]uts of this magnitude done in an 
        across-the-board fashion would be devastating both to defense 
        and non-defense programs.'' (The Budget of the United States 
        Government, Fiscal Year 2013, p. 24, February 13, 2012).
            (4) On March 29, 2012, The House of Representatives passed 
        H. Con. Res. 112, the budget resolution for fiscal year 2013, 
        which includes reconciliation instructions directing House 
        Committees to craft legislation that would achieve the savings 
        required to replace the sequestration called for in fiscal year 
        2013, as established by the Budget Control Act of 2011.
            (5) On May 10, 2012, the House of Representatives passed 
        H.R. 5652, the Sequestration Replacement Reconciliation Act of 
        2012, which would replace the $98 billion sequestration of 
        discretionary spending called for in 2013, as established by 
        the Budget Control Act of 2011, by making changes in law to 
        reduce direct spending by $310 billion through fiscal year 
        2022.
            (6) An analysis of the impact of the sequestration prepared 
        for the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee found 
        that if left in place, sequestration would cut the military to 
        its smallest size since before the Second World War, all while 
        we are still a nation at war in Afghanistan, facing increased 
        threats from Iran and North Korea, unrest in the Middle East, 
        and a rising China.
            (7) Major consequences identified by the House Armed 
        Services Committee include the following:
                    (A) 200,000 soldiers and Marines separated from 
                service, bringing our force well below our pre-9/11 
                levels.
                    (B) Ability to respond to contingencies in North 
                Korea or Iran at jeopardy.
                    (C) The smallest ground force since 1940.
                    (D) A fleet of fewer than 230 ships, the smallest 
                level since 1915.
                    (E) The smallest tactical fighter force in the 
                history of the Air Force.
                    (F) Our nuclear triad that has kept the U.S. and 30 
                of our allies safe for decades will be in jeopardy.
                    (G) Reductions of 20 percent in defense civilian 
                personnel.
                    (H) Two BRAC rounds of base closings. (House Armed 
                Services Committee memo entitled ``Assessment of 
                Impacts of Budget Cuts'', September 22, 2011).
            (8) Secretary Panetta and the professional military 
        leadership have also looked at the impact of sequestration and 
        reached similar conclusions.
            (9) Secretary Panetta stated, ``If the maximum 
        sequestration is triggered, the total cut will rise to about $1 
        trillion compared with the FY 2012 plan. The impacts of these 
        cuts would be devastating for the Department. . . Facing such 
        large reductions, we would have to reduce the size of the 
        military sharply. Rough estimates suggest after ten years of 
        these cuts, we would have the smallest ground force since 1940, 
        the smallest number of ships since 1915, and the smallest Air 
        Force in its history.'' (Secretary Panetta, Letter to Senator 
        John McCain, November 14, 2011).
            (10) General Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
        Staff, stated, ``[S]equestration leaves me three places to go 
        to find the additional money: operations, maintenance, and 
        training. That's the definition of a hollow force.''.
            (11) The individual branch service chiefs echoed General 
        Dempsey:
                    (A) ``Cuts of this magnitude would be catastrophic 
                to the military. . .My assessment is that the nation 
                would incur an unacceptable level of strategic and 
                operational risk.'' - General Ray T. Odierno, Chief Of 
                Staff, United States Army.
                    (B) ``A severe and irreversible impact on the 
                Navy's future'' - Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, Chief 
                of Naval Operations.
                    (C) ``A Marine Corps below the end strength that's 
                necessary to support even one major contingency,'' - 
                General James F. Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps.
                    (D) ``Even the most thoroughly deliberated strategy 
                may not be able to overcome dire consequences,'' - 
                General Norton A. Schwartz, Chief of Staff, United 
                States Air Force (Testimony of Service Chief before 
                House Armed Services Committee, November 2, 2011).
            (12) According to an analysis by the House Appropriations 
        Committee, the sequester will also have a significant impact on 
        non-defense discretionary programs, including the following:
                    (A) Automatically reducing Head Start by $650 
                million, resulting in 75,000 fewer slots for children 
                in the program.
                    (B) Automatically reducing the National Institutes 
                of Health (NIH) by $2.4 billion, an amount equal to 
                nearly half of total NIH spending on cancer this year.
                    (C) A reduction of approximately 1,870 Border 
                Patrol Agents (a reduction of nearly 9 percent of the 
                total number of agents).
            (13) Beyond the negative impacts sequestration will have on 
        defense readiness, it will also undermine the industrial base 
        needed to equip our armed forces with the weapons and 
        technology they need to complete their mission. A study 
        released by the National Association of Manufacturers suggests 
        that 1.1 million workers in the supply chain could be adversely 
        affected, including 3.4 percent of workers in the aerospace 
        industry, 3.3 percent of the workforce in the shipbuilding 
        industry and 10 percent of the workers in the search and 
        navigation equipment industry.

SEC. 3. CONDITIONAL REPLACEMENT FOR FY 2013 SEQUESTER.

    (a) Contingent Effective Date.--This section and the amendments 
made by it shall take effect upon the enactment of--
            (1) the Act contemplated in section 201 of H. Con. Res. 112 
        (112th Congress) that achieves at least the deficit reduction 
        called for in such section for such periods; or
            (2) similar legislation that achieves outlay reductions 
        within five years after the date of enactment that equal or 
        exceed the outlay reductions flowing from the budget authority 
        reductions mandated by sections 251A(7)(A) and 251A(8) of the 
        Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as 
        in force immediately before the date of enactment of this Act, 
        as it applies to direct spending in the defense function for 
        fiscal year 2013 combined with the outlay reductions flowing 
        from the amendment to section 251A(7)(A)(i) of the Balanced 
        Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 made by 
        subsection (c) of this section.
    (b) Revised 2013 Discretionary Spending Limit.--Paragraph (2) of 
section 251(c) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act 
of 1985 is amended to read as follows:
            ``(2) with respect to fiscal year 2013, for the 
        discretionary category, $1,047,000,000,000 in new budget 
        authority;''.
    (c) Discretionary Savings.--Section 251A(7)(A) of the Balanced 
Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 is amended to read as 
follows:
                    ``(A) Fiscal year 2013.--
                            ``(i) Fiscal year 2013 adjustment.--On 
                        January 2, 2013, the discretionary category set 
                        forth in section 251(c)(2) shall be decreased 
                        by $19,104,000,000 in budget authority.
                            ``(ii) Enforcement of discretionary 
                        spending caps.--OMB shall issue a supplemental 
                        report consistent with the requirements set 
                        forth in section 254(f)(2) for fiscal year 2013 
                        using the procedures set forth in section 
                        253(f) on April 15, 2013, to eliminate any 
                        discretionary spending breach of the spending 
                        limit set forth in section 251(c)(2) as 
                        adjusted by clause (i), and the President shall 
                        issue an order to eliminate the breach, if any, 
                        identified in such report.''.
    (d) Elimination and Conditional Replacement of the Fiscal Year 2013 
Sequestration for Direct Spending.--
            (1) Elimination.--Any sequestration order issued by the 
        President under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
        Control Act of 1985 to carry out reductions to direct spending 
        for the defense function (050) for fiscal year 2013 pursuant to 
        section 251A of such Act shall have no force or effect.
            (2) Conditional replacement.--To the extent that 
        legislation enacted pursuant to section 3(a)(2) achieves outlay 
        reductions that exceed the outlay reductions flowing from the 
        budget authority reductions required in section 251A(8) of the 
        Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as 
        in force immediately before the date of enactment of this Act, 
        the direct spending reductions for the nonsecurity category for 
        fiscal year 2013 otherwise required to be ordered pursuant to 
        such section shall be reduced by that amount, and Congress so 
        designates for such purpose.

SEC. 4. PRESIDENTIAL SUBMISSION.

    Not later than October 15, 2012, the President shall transmit to 
Congress a legislative proposal that meets the requirements of section 
3(a)(2) of this Act.
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