[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 168 (Wednesday, October 18, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S6564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1292. Mr. PAUL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to 
amendment SA 1116 proposed by Mr. Enzi to the concurrent resolution H. 
Con. Res. 71, establishing the congressional budget for the United 
States Government for fiscal year 2018 and setting forth the 
appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2019 through 2027; which 
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place insert the following:

     SEC. ___. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON TREATMENT OF REDUCTION OF 
                   APPROPRIATIONS LEVELS TO ACHIEVE SAVINGS.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
       (1) H. Con. Res. 448 (96th Congress), the concurrent 
     resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1981, gave 
     authorizing committees reconciliation instructions which 
     amounted to approximately two-thirds of the savings required 
     under reconciliation.
       (2) The language in H. Con. Res. 448 resulted in a debate 
     about how reconciling discretionary spending programs could 
     be in order given that authorizations of appropriations for 
     programs did not actually change spending and the programs 
     authorized would be funded through later annual 
     appropriation. The staff of the Committee on the Budget of 
     the Senate and Marty Gold, counsel to the Majority Leader, 
     advised that upon consultation with the Parliamentarian, the 
     original instructions on discretionary spending would be out 
     of order because of the phrase, ``to modify programs''. This 
     was seen as too broad and programs could be modified without 
     resulting in changes to their future appropriations.
       (3) To rectify this violation, the Committee on the Budget 
     of the Senate reported S. Con. Res. 9 (97th Congress), 
     revising the congressional budget for the United States 
     Government for fiscal years 1981, 1982, and 1983, to include 
     reconciliation, which revised the language in the 
     reconciliation instructions to change entitlement law and 
     ``to report changes in laws within the jurisdiction of that 
     committee sufficient to reduce appropriations levels so as to 
     achieve savings''.
       (4) This was understood to mean changes in authorization 
     language of discretionary programs would be permissible under 
     reconciliation procedures provided such changes in law would 
     have the result in affecting a change in later outlays 
     derived from future appropriations. Further it was understood 
     that a change in authorization language that caused a change 
     in later outlays was considered to be a change in outlays for 
     the purpose of reconciliation.
       (5) On April 2, 1981, the Senate voted 88 to 10 to approve 
     S. Con. Res. 9 with the modified reconciliation language.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate 
     that committees reporting changes in laws within the 
     jurisdiction of that committee sufficient to reduce 
     appropriations levels so as to achieve savings shall be 
     considered to be changes in outlays for the purpose of 
     enforcing the prohibition on extraneous matters in 
     reconciliation bills.
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