| COMMITTEE ACTION: REPORTED BY VOICE VOTE on Wednesday, March 24, 2004. FLOOR ACTION:ADOPTED BY VOICE VOTE, AFTER AGREEING ON THE PREVIOUS BY A RECORD VOTE OF 222-201 on Thursday, March 25, 2004. |
| MANAGERS: HASTINGS (WA)/FROST |
| 108th Congress 2nd Session
|
| H. RES. 574 |
| [Report No. 108-446] |
H. Con. Res. 393 - Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, Fiscal Year 2005 1. Structured rule.
2. Provides for further consideration of the concurrent resolution.
3. Makes in order only those amendments printed in the Rules Committee report accompanying the resolution which may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, and shall not be subject to amendment.
4. Waives all points of order against the amendments printed in the report, except that the adoption of an amendment in the nature of a substitute shall constitute the conclusion of consideration of the concurrent resolution for amendment.
5. Provides, upon the conclusion of consideration of the concurrent resolution for amendment, for a final period of general debate not to exceed 10 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget.
6. Permits the chairman of the Budget Committee to offer amendments in the House to achieve mathematical consistency.
7. Provides that the concurrent resolution shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question of its adoption.
---------
RESOLUTION Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for further consideration of the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 393) establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2005 and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2004 and 2006 through 2009. No further general debate shall be in order. The concurrent resolution shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. The concurrent resolution shall be considered as read. No amendment shall be in order except those printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution. Each amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, and shall not be subject to amendment. All points of order against the amendments are waived except that the adoption of an amendment in the nature of a substitute shall constitute the conclusion of consideration of the concurrent resolution for amendment. After the conclusion of consideration of the concurrent resolution for amendment and a final period of general debate, which shall not exceed 10 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget, the Committee shall rise and report the concurrent resolution to the House with such amendment as may have been adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the concurrent resolution and amendments thereto to final adoption without intervening motion except amendments offered by the chairman of the Committee on the Budget pursuant to section 305(a)(5) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to achieve mathematical consistency. The concurrent resolution shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question of its adoption.
SUMMARY OF AMENDMENT MADE IN ORDER
(summaries derived from information provided by sponsors)Cummings/ R. Scott/Majette #18
CBC Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute. The Congressional Black Caucus fiscal year 2005 budget promotes improvements for homeland security, provides necessary benefits for our veterans, addresses the domestic challenges of educating our youth and growing our economy and tackles the international challenges of poverty, disease and sustainable development. Provides the necessary resources for the Department of Homeland Security to begin fully protecting America's rails and ports, and provides significant resources for our first responders -- the first line of defense in the event of an attack. Provides vital funding to fulfill our promises to our veterans as well as our current troops and reservists fighting on battlefields around the world. Provides for job training and workforce development and a four-week extension for unemployment benefits. Provides additional funding for job creation programs under the Small Business Administration. Restores cuts and funds increases in specific budget function areas. These include investments in providing funding for health insurance for the uninsured, fully funding the fiscal year 2005 authorization level for No Child Left Behind, doubling the federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions, increasing the Pell Grant allotment for college students, and funding resources for law enforcement initiatives such as COPS, local law enforcement block grants, and juvenile justice programs. Raises revenues by rescinding the tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 for individuals making more than $200,000 in gross income and by closing tax loopholes, abusive shelters, and methods of tax avoidance. Protects the child-care tax credit, the elimination of the marriage penalty and the 10% tax bracket. Provides funding for deficit reduction. Reduces funding for the Ballistic Missile Defense program and estimates savings in defense contractor overcharges. (40 minutes)Hill/Stenholm #31
Blue Dog Amendment in the nature of a Substitute. The Blue Dog budget combines the spending restraint in the President's budget with strong budget enforcement measures and responsible tax policy to reduce the deficit and balance the budget by 2012. The budget focuses on policies for next year, deferring action on additional tax cuts or other proposals that would create additional budgetary obligations in future years based on projections until Congress and the President have taken action to reduce the deficit. Implements a combination of spending restraint, restructuring of enacted tax cuts and making extension of tax cuts after 2010 subject to paygo rules to reduce the deficit and achieve a balanced budget by 2012. Reduces deficit by one half in two years and to one third of it's current size by 2010. Requires the House to have a separate vote on legislation increasing the debt limit by $150 billion. Restricts further increases in the debt limit, other than increases necessary to meet obligations for military operations, to no more than $100 billion at a time until CBO certifies that the budget on path to achieve unified balance by 2012. Extends pay as you go rules for all legislation which would increase the deficit through increases in mandatory spending or reductions in revenues. Establishes discretionary spending limits enforced by sequestration for the next two fiscal years at the levels proposed by the President. Requires separate vote in the House to waive budget rules, including paygo rules and discretionary spending limits. Establishes a point of order against legislation with costs that begin outside the budget window. Calls for President and Congress to consider changes to prescription drug legislation if actual costs are above the $400 billion in the budget last year. Calls for President and Congress to consider legislation offseting the increase in the deficit if actual revenues are below the levels assumed in the budget last year. Prohibits the use of "directed scorekeeping" in which legislation directs CBO to use certain assumptions to provide a more favorable budget estimate. Requires that the Congressional Budget Office provide an estimate of the macro-economic effect of legislation increasing or reducing the budget deficit. Discretionary spending: Sets overall discretionary spending totals at the levels recommended by the President; Sets aside $50 billion for a supplemental request by the President for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; Increases funding for defense in 2005 by $26.5 billion above 2004 enacted levels (excluding supplemental); Reallocate funding among budget functions to provide more funding for education, discretionary health care and veterans; and allows spending levels to be adjusted for the highway bill reauthorization if the legislation provides increases in funding that are fully offset. The Blue Dog budget restructures tax cuts to benefit middle class. Extends family tax relief expiring after 2004 (full child tax credit, marriage penalty relief, expanded 10% bracket) for one year, with further extensions subject to paygo. Assumes estate tax relief for family farms and small businesses. Suspends reductions in top two marginal tax rates through 2010. Allows additional tax cuts (energy bill, etc) if the costs are offset. Congress could extend expiring tax cuts if they are offset under paygo rules. Congress could make tax cuts permanent if the budget is balanced and making the tax cuts permanent would not put the budget back into deficit. Calls for revenue neutral reforms of the AMT to protect middle income taxpayers. The Blue Dog budget also provides for: the establishment of a reserve fund for legislation improving access to health insurance by the uninsured if the legislation is fully offset; and the establishment of a reserve fund which would provide additional funding for local law enforcement if the House approves legislation for new spectrum auctions. (40 minutes)Hensarling #12
RSC Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute. The Republican Study Committee amendment replaces the current 19 functional categories with four functions: Defense Discretionary, Homeland Security, Non-Defense Discretionary and Mandatory Spending, and Interest. Includes Iraq Operations Reserve Fund. Includes Budget Committee number on discretionary Defense, but creates a one-way firewall that locks in that level as minimum amount of funding and permits non-defense spending to be shifted towards defense. Includes Budget Committee number for discretionary Homeland Security. Reduces non-security discretionary spending by 1% compared to last year's level (Budget Committee will call for a freeze, a difference of approximately $6.1 billion in the first year). Includes reconciliation instructions reducing the rate of growth of non-Social Security mandatory spending by 1%. Chairmen would be permitted to apply the savings unevenly across mandatory programs with particular emphasis on exempting earned entitlement programs (A savings of approximately $7.3 billion in the first year compared to the Budget Committee). Assumes the President's number for tax relief over the next five years (Budget Committee calls for $152.6 billion in tax relief, $30 billion less than the President's Budget over five years). Calls for two additional reconciliation bills, one to extend expiring tax provisions and a second for new tax relief proposals. Provides a definition for emergency spending in the Budget Resolution that will be enforceable via a new point of order. Requires a stand-alone vote to waive any point of order that a bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion or conference report is in violation of the Budget Resolution. Create "Family Budget Protection Accounts" that allow Congress to target spending during the appropriations and direct spending process and redirect that spending foe deficit reduction at the end of the fiscal year. Includes a sense of Congress on overall budget process reform. (40 minutes)Spratt #21
Democratic Leadership Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute. Achieves balance by 2012 and contains smaller deficits than the Republican budget in every year. The Democratic leadership budget provides more funds than the Republican budget for important domestic priorities, such as education, veterans, the environment, and homeland security. The Democratic budget also extends middle-class tax cuts such as the marriage penalty relief, the child tax credit, Alternative Minimum Tax relief and the 10 percent individual tax bracket. Finally, the Democratic budget reimposes and complies with the pay-as-you-go budget enforcement rule which helped wipe out the deficit and achieve surpluses in the 1990s. PAYGO requires that any increase in tax cuts or spending be fully offset. (60 minutes)
TEXT OF THE AMENDMENT(.pdf)
