User:Kmer2018/sandbox

Preliminary research notes

Two articles I am considering editing:

Balanced Budget Act of 1997; Budget Enforcement Act of 1990

I found these on the wiki page for U.S. legislation stubs and am particularly interested in these pages because these bills are related to subsequent budget legislation, see Budget Control Act of 2011, that I covered while working as a research assistant at a think tank in DC. These are part of a series of bills starting with legislation passed in the 1980s, see Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act, to reduce federal spending through budget caps and automatic spending cuts. Both pages are out of date (e.g., neither reference the Budget Control Act of 2011) and both lack sufficient citations.

Talk pages:

Budget Enforcement Act of 1990: Only one edit is explained in the talk page, and it was just editing hyperlinks in 2016.

Balanced Budget Act of 1997: Also limited talk page from 2011; revision history suggests that last substantive edits were in 2011 from JMU class.

Article choice: Budget Enforcement Act of 1990

I ultimately chose this article because there seemed to be room for improvement in several areas, though the page itself doesn't appear to need much restructuring. My goals are to:

1. Add more context, such as linking to CRS reports and/or news coverage -- both as citations and as Further Reading.
2. Suggest merging with another wiki article, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. The BEA of 1990 was a part of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1990.
3. Organize into subheadings, similar to the page for Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act, to separate explanation of the Act, vote count, and the bill's legacy, with links to related legislation.
4. Add legislative history, similar to the page for Budget Control Act of 2011.
5. Create info box.

Sources:

• Oct. 27, 1990, P.L. 101-508, OMNIBUS BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1990, H.R. CONF. REP. 101–964, https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/confrpt101-964.pdf
• Presidential Signing Statement, Nov. 05, 1990, P.L. 101-508, OMNIBUS BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1990, 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2930-1.
• CRS report, Statutory Budget Controls in Effect Between 1985 and 2002, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41901.pdf
• CRS report, Sequestration as a Budget Enforcement Process: Frequently Asked Questions, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42972.pdf

Implemented edits to Budget Enforcement Act of 1990

The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (BEA) (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 101–508, title XIII; 104 Stat. 1388-573; codified as amended at scattered sections of 2 U.S.C. & 15 U.S.C. § 1022) was enacted by the United States Congress as title XIII of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, to enforce the deficit reduction accomplished by that law by revising the federal budget control procedures originally enacted by the Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act. The BEA created two new budget control processes: a set of caps on annually-appropriated discretionary spending, and a "pay-as-you-go" or "PAYGO" process for entitlements and taxes.

Legislative History

The predecessor to the BEA, Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, was originally enacted in 1985 and set overall deficit targets as a way to force Congress to enact future deficit reduction. If these deficit targets were not met, the president was required issue a sequestration order to automatically reduce discretionary spending.

However, policymakers achieved these targets by using overly optimistic budget projections and other budget gimmicks, and Gramm-Rudman-Hollings was eventually viewed by policymakers as contributing to, rather than solving, the problem of rising deficits. By October 1990, the president's Office of Management and Budget projected a budget deficit for fiscal year 1991 that exceeded the statutory target; if Congress did not enact a deficit reduction plan, sequestration would have cut discretionary spending by about one-third.

In November 1990, Congress and President George H.W. Bush agreed to a bipartisan deficit reduction deal that would achieve roughly $500 billion in savings over five years through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. These savings were enacted through the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 and enforced by the budget procedures contained in Title XIII, the BEA, which was signed into law on November 5, 1990.

Provisions

Unlike Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, which set fixed deficit targets in hopes of encouraging future Congressional action, the BEA implemented budget controls meant to prevent Congress from taking actions that would increase the deficit. Specifically, the BEA

• Introduced caps on discretionary spending, thus limiting the amount of funds Congress could provide in annual appropriations bills. Members of Congress could enforce these caps while a bill was under consideration by raising a point of order. If the caps were breached through enacted legislation, they would be enforced by a presidential sequester order that would cut discretionary spending across the board.
• Introduced statutory "pay-as-you-go" or PAYGO procedures to govern new legislation that impacted direct spending and/or revenues. PAYGO required that any new spending increase or tax cut be offset by spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere. The Office of Management and Budget would track such legislation throughout the fiscal year on a PAYGO scorecard, and if such spending increases and tax cuts were not completely offset, the President would issue a sequestration order that would cut non-exempt direct spending programs.
• Extended and revised the deficit targets from Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, allowing for revisions to the deficit targets to reflect changes in the economy, ensuring that sequestration would not be triggered unless Congress breached the discretionary spending caps or violated PAYGO.

Subsequent Legislation

The BEA was extended by the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993, and again by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. It expired in 2002, but the Democratic Majority adopted some of its principles, known as PAYGO, or Pay-As-You-Go, in their rules during the 110th Congress. This was passed as H. RES. 6 on January 4, 2007. Statutory PAYGO was reinstated by the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, which President Barack Obama signed on February 12, 2010. Discretionary spending caps, as well as deficit reduction targets, were reintroduced by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Legacy and Impact

The BEA is credited with helping to reduce deficits during the 1990s, and regarded as more successful than its predecessor Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. Then-director of the Congressional Budget Office, Robert Reischauer, compared the legacy of these two laws in testimony before Congress in 1993, concluding that “budget procedures are much better at enforcing deficit reduction agreements (as the Budget Enforcement Act has done) than at forcing such agreements to be reached." Sequestration was triggered only twice under the BEA, resulting in small discretionary spending cuts in 1991. However, Congress began to weaken the BEA's budget controls when faced with budget surpluses in the late 1990s.

Related

• United States budget process
• Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974

Further reading

• Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 Conference Report 101-961, 101st Congress, 2d Session.
• Dauster, William G. Budget Process Law Annotated: 1993 Edition. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1993. ISBN 0-16-041726-0
• History of the House Budget Committee
• Tax Policy Center Briefing Book, What is PAYGO?
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Policy Basics: Introduction to the Federal Budget Process
• Center for a Responsible Federal Budget, Playing By the (Budget) Rules: Understanding and Preventing Budget Gimmicks, February 26, 2018.

Research notes for wikipedians

Many presidential and congressional resources are not available on government websites dating back to 1990. However, the Library of Congress has put together several resources where such documents are available elsewhere on the web. See, for example, the LoC guide on Presidential Signing Statements, and Finding U.S. Government Documents at the Library of Congress.