1.This Act may be cited as the
Deficit Reduction Implementation
Act
.
2.In this Act, the term qualified
bill means a bill in the House of Representatives or Senate that—
(1)(A)has not fewer than 6
sponsors who caucus with Democrats and 6 sponsors who caucus with Republicans
in the Senate; or
(B)has not fewer than 15 sponsors who
caucus with Republicans and 15 sponsors who caucus with Democrats in the
House;
(2)states as it
purpose to reduce the deficit by a goal of $4,000,000,000,000, but at least
$1,500,000,000,000, over the period of fiscal years 2012 through 2021;
and
(3)specifies that
the qualified bill is being introduced pursuant to this Act.
3.Consideration of
bipartisan deficit reduction bills
(a)Not later than February 29, 2012, any Senator or Member
of the House of Representatives may introduce a qualified bill that shall be
considered as provided under subsection (c).
(b)Referral of a
qualified bill
(1)In
the Senate, a qualified bill introduced as provided by subsection (a) shall
immediately be referred to the appropriate committee or committees of
jurisdiction for review and reporting.
(2)In
the House, a qualified bill introduced as provided by subsection (a) shall
immediately be referred to the appropriate committee or the committees of
jurisdiction for review and reporting.
(3)
(A)Not later than 48 hours after referral to committees, the
bill shall be scored by CBO based on—
(i)current scoring
guidelines;
(ii)a
continuation of policies in effect at the time the bill was introduced;
and
(iii)the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform plausible baseline policy
assumptions (referred to in this Act as the plausible
baseline
).
(B)For each bill, all 3 scores referred to in
subparagraph (A) shall be printed in the Congressional Record and shall be
available online.
(c)Proceeding to
the qualified bill
(1)Not
later than March 9, 2012, and notwithstanding rule XXII of the Standing Rules
of the Senate, it shall be in order for any Senator to move to proceed to the
consideration of a qualified bill (which shall have been discharged from
committee if not reported under subsection (b)) which shall be considered as
provided for a joint committee bill under subsections (c) and (d) of section
402 of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (2 U.S.C. 900 note) for the Senate,
except that the date for reporting under subsection (c)(1) of such section and
the date for the vote on passage under subsection (c)(5) of such section shall
not apply to the qualified bill.
(2)Not
later than March 9, 2012, it shall be in order for any Member of the House of
Representatives to move to proceed to the consideration of a qualified bill
(which shall have been discharged from committee if not reported under
subsection (b)) which shall be considered as provided for a joint committee
bill under subsections (b) and (d) of section 402 of the Budget Control Act of
2011 (2 U.S.C. 900 note) for the House of Representatives, except that the date
for reporting under subsection (b)(1) of such section and the date for the vote
on passage under subsection (b)(4) of such section shall not apply to the
qualified bill.
(3)The
House or the Senate may not proceed to a qualified bill under this subsection
unless the scores required by subsection (b)(3) have been available in the
Congressional Record and online for at least 72 hours.
(d)
(1)Consideration
by the other HouseSection 402(e) of the Budget Control Act of
2011 (2 U.S.C. 900 note) shall apply to a qualified bill passed by the other
House.
(2)If there is more than 1 qualifying bill, the
qualifying bill will be the bill that achieves the most deficit reduction. If
such bill fails to be enacted, succeeding bills may be qualifying bills and
shall be considered in the order of the amount of deficit reduction
achieved.
(e)If
the President vetoes a qualified bill, debate on a veto message in the Senate
or the House shall be one hour, equally divided between the majority and
minority leader, or their designees.
(f)This section shall cease to apply to a qualified bill
if the qualified bill does not pass both Houses of Congress not later than
March 30, 2012.
4.Application of
other provisions of Budget Control Act
(a)A qualified bill that is enacted, and that achieves at
least $1,500,000,000,000 in deficit reduction as certified by CBO either as
measured by current scoring guidelines, against a continuation of policies in
effect at the time the bill was introduced, or the plausible baseline shall be
deemed to be a joint committee bill for purposes of section 3101A(a)(2)(A)(iii)
of title 31, United States Code.
(b)A
qualified bill that is enacted, and that achieves at least $1,500,000,000,000
in deficit reduction as certified by CBO either as measured by current scoring
guidelines, against a continuation of policies in effect at the time the bill
was introduced, or the plausible baseline shall cancel the discretionary
spending limits listed under section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency
Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901a).
5.This Act is enacted by Congress—
(1)as an exercise of the rulemaking power of
the House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively, and as such they
shall be considered as part of the rules of each House, respectively, or of
that House to which they specifically apply, and such rules shall supersede
other rules only to the extent that they are inconsistent therewith; and
(2)with full recognition of the constitutional
right of either House to change such rules (so far as relating to such House)
at any time, in the same manner, and to the same extent as in the case of any
other rule of such House.