About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


CBO Analysis of August 1 Budget Control Act 1 (August 1, 2011)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo10576 and id is 1 raw text is: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director U.S. Congress Washington, DC 20515 August 1, 2011 Honorable John A. Boehner Speaker U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Honorable Harry Reid Majority Leader United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Mr. Speaker and Mr. Leader: The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the impact on the deficit of the Budget Control Act of 2011, as posted on the Web site of the House Committee on Rules on August 1, 2011. The legislation would: * Establish caps on discretionary spending through 2021; * Allow for certain amounts of additional spending for program integrity initiatives aimed at reducing the amount of improper benefit payments; * Make changes to the Pell Grant and student loan programs; * Require that the House of Representatives and the Senate vote on a joint resolution proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution; * Establish a procedure to increase the debt limit by $400 billion initially and procedures that would allow the limit to be raised further in two additional steps, for a cumulative increase of between $2.1 trillion and $2.4 trillion; * Reinstate and modify certain budget process rules; * Create a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction, with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years; and * Establish automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve such savings. If appropriations in the next 10 years are equal to the caps on discretionary spending and the maximum amount of funding is provided for the program integrity initiatives, CBO estimates that the legislation-apart from the provisions related to the joint select committee-would reduce budget deficits by $917 billion between 2012 and 2021. In addition, legislation originating with the joint select committee, or the automatic