[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 178 (Friday, December 9, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7033-S7034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DAINES (for himself, Mr. Perdue, and Mr. Lee):
  S. 3539. A bill to amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to 
provide that any estimate prepared by the Congressional Budget Office 
or the Joint Committee on Taxation shall include costs relating to 
servicing the public debt; to the Committee on the Budget.
  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I am introducing a bill that will reveal 
to the public the true cost of legislative proposals by requiring that 
interest expense be included in all budgetary estimates.
  This bill will finally allow the American people to understand the 
true cost of the irresponsible spending that is going on here by 
Congress, and it will force Congress to deal with the reality of our 
debt so that we can make the decisions that need to be made going 
forward, knowing the true impact they will have on our children and our 
grandchildren.
  Let me give an example. The current interest the taxpayer pays today 
on the national debt is approximately $248 billion per year. Now, when 
interest rates go up, this number will significantly increase. In fact, 
the Congressional Budget Office projects that by

[[Page S7034]]

the year 2026, the amount of interest we will pay on our national debt 
will exceed $700 billion per year.
  In 1974, the Congressional Budget Act established two organizations 
as official budgetary scorekeepers. They are the referees used to 
calculate cost estimates for a legislative proposal. When a Member of 
Congress puts forward a bill, they put forward an estimate on what it 
would cost. In this way, the system already recognizes that the public 
deserves to know not only how much the bill will cost but, 
additionally, how much interest will cost on additional debt as a 
result of the bill proposal. However, it probably surprises a lot of 
folks that the law does not currently require these scorekeepers, these 
umpires, these referees to account for the interest cost on those 
estimates. Can you imagine?
  Imagine a family around the dinner table, thinking about purchasing a 
car or perhaps a new home but not considering the cost of the interest 
on that very loan used to buy that car or that new home. Run the 
amortization table sometime on a 30-year conventional loan for a new 
home. Depending on the rate and the terms of the loan, the interest the 
consumer will pay can actually exceed the cost of the home itself. Yet 
this is what the Federal Government does with its legislative budgetary 
estimates, and it is wrong. That is not the way ordinary folks do it, 
and that is not the way we should be doing it here.
  At the end of the day, whether Congress properly accounts for its 
budgeted costs or not, the American people are going to have to pick up 
the dime. The way we are calculating budgetary costs now actually 
deflates the true cost. So it is painting a rosier picture for the 
public than what actually exists.
  If I were to go back home, chat with a Montanan, and tell them that 
Congress allows gimmicks that really shield how much it spends, they 
would be furious--and they should be furious. Government spending is 
bloated and far exceeds any commonsense approach that a Montana family 
would use for their own household. It is time Congress had a true 
account of the debt burden it is leaving for our kids and our 
grandkids.
  That is why I am introducing the Budgetary Accuracy in Scoring Costs 
Act--the acronym is the BASIC Act--which will require budget 
scorekeepers to include the cost of interest on a legislative proposal. 
This bill will allow the American public to better understand the true 
costs of irresponsible fiscal spending in Congress and will force this 
body to face the important decisions it has before it.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 3539

       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 ``Budgetary Accuracy in 
     Scoring Interest Costs Act of 2016''.

     SEC. 2. CBO AND JCT ESTIMATES TO INCLUDE DEBT SERVICING 
                   COSTS.

       (a) In General.--Title IV of the Congressional Budget and 
     Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 651 et seq.) is 
     amended by inserting after section 402 the following:


              ``estimates to include debt servicing costs

       ``Sec. 403. Any estimate prepared by the Congressional 
     Budget Office under section 402, and any estimate prepared by 
     the Joint Committee on Taxation, shall include, to the extent 
     practicable, the costs (if any) of servicing the debt subject 
     to limit under section 3101 of title 31, United States 
     Code.''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents of such Act 
     is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
     402 the following:

``403. Estimates to include debt servicing costs.''.
                                 ______