[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3296 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3296

  To authorize the United States Department of Treasury to prioritize 
     certain payments in the event that the debt limit is reached.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 16, 2013

 Mr. Gallego introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To authorize the United States Department of Treasury to prioritize 
     certain payments in the event that the debt limit is reached.

    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 ``Pay America First Act''.

SEC. 2. AUTHORITY TO PROTECT AMERICA'S SENIORS, VETERANS, AND OTHER 
              DOMESTIC PAYMENTS PRIOR TO DEBT OBLIGATIONS TO FOREIGN 
              BONDHOLDERS.

    This Act shall take effect if the United States Government defaults 
on its legal obligations for the first time in its history, as 
evidenced by the Secretary of the Treasury taking any of the following 
actions:
    (1) Withhold from making payments of debt obligations to foreign 
bond holders, including those in China, Iran, and the Cayman Islands, 
before making payments of debt obligations to programs as listed below:
            (a) Make a payment of a debt obligation to the Social 
        Security and Medicare trust funds or redeem a debt obligation 
        held by those trust funds.
            (b) Redeem a debt obligation held by a trust fund providing 
        veterans benefits, including the Veterans Special Life 
        Insurance Fund, the Veterans Reopened Insurance Fund, the Armed 
        Forces Retirement Home Fund, and the Court of Veteran Appeals 
        Retirement Fund.
            (c) Redeem a debt obligation held by an intragovernmental 
        fund with the purpose of assisting Americans during a natural 
        disaster, including reserves for the National Flood Insurance 
        Program and other disaster relief funds appropriated to the 
        President.
            (d) Make a payment of debt obligations to the Department of 
        Defense, including civilian and uniformed personnel (Army, 
        Navy, Marines, Air Force), military active pay and military 
        retirement benefits, and military benefits to their families.

SEC. 3. REPORT ON CERTAIN ACTIONS.

    (1) In general, after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of Treasury exercises his or her authority under subsection 
(a), the Secretary shall thereafter submit a report each week to 
Congress on the payments issued and amount of revenues incoming and 
remaining reserves for upcoming payments issued.
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