Amendment: (1) changes the legal definition of the Federal budget baseline so that it no longer assumes automatic growth in discretionary spending due to inflation; (2) requires both the President and Congress to compare their budgets to the amount actually spent the prior year, rather than solely against the inflated baseline; (3) stipulates that Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimates of pending legislation must include a comparison to the change in spending from the prior year's level; and (4) instructs CBO to enumerate all the programs funded on an automatic, open-ended basis rather than subject to annual congressional review (entitlement programs) and identify the reasons behind their projected growth.

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Amendment Number
843
Description
Amendment: (1) changes the legal definition of the Federal budget baseline so that it no longer assumes automatic growth in discretionary spending due to inflation; (2) requires both the President and Congress to compare their budgets to the amount actually spent the prior year, rather than solely against the inflated baseline; (3) stipulates that Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimates of pending legislation must include a comparison to the change in spending from the prior year's level; and (4) instructs CBO to enumerate all the programs funded on an automatic, open-ended basis rather than subject to annual congressional review (entitlement programs) and identify the reasons behind their projected growth.
Purpose
An amendment in the nature of a substitute to change the definition of baseline to eliminate the inflation adjustment for discretionary spending. The amendment also requires that the President's proposed budget include a comparison of the proposed levels of spending with this baseline, as well as the percentage increases or decreases from this baseline. Further, the amendment specifies that the "starting point" for deliberations in the House and Senate Budget Committees on a budget resolution for the next fiscal year must be the estimated levels of spending for the current fiscal year. It also requires that any increases or decreases in the budget resolution must be from those estimated levels and that the report on the budget resolution must include these comparisons, along with the percentage changes from the baseline.
Congress
103
Type
HAMDT
Latest Action Date
Aug 12, 1994
Latest Action Text
On agreeing to the Penny amendment (A001) Agreed to by recorded vote: 247 - 171 (Roll no. 395).
Latest Action Time
13:00:29
Submitted Date
Aug 12, 1994
Chamber
House of Representatives
Update Date
Aug 15, 2021
Amendment 843 — Informed