HB 3576 Spending Control Act of 2011

About HB-3576

Spending Control Act of 2011 - Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to establish for FY2013-FY2021:

• (1) direct spending limits,
• (2) total spending limits, and
• (3) deficit limits

Prescribes certain deficit control mechanisms (sequestration and reduction orders) for such period. Requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to:

• (1) determine common scorekeeping guidelines, and
• (2) prepare estimates in conformance with such guidelines

Requires OMB and CBO each to make annual comparisons for the current and the ten ensuing fiscal years of projected total deficits and specified deficit limits. Repeals the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010. Prescribes and/or revises requirements for direct, total, and deficit sequestration preview and final reports. Eliminates Pay-As-You-Go reports. Adds the following programs and activities to the list exempted from sequestration orders:

• (1) obligated balances of budget authority carried over from prior fiscal years;
• (2) federal obligations required to be paid under the U.S. Constitution or legally contractual obligations;
• (3) Claims, Judgments, and Relief Acts (20-1895-0-1-808); and
• (4) intragovernmental transfers

Modifies and/or repeals certain mandatory general and special sequestration rules. Requires an appropriate adjustment for the discretionary spending limit of an outyear if an appropriation for the budget year causes a change in direct spending in that outyear. Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA) to:

• (1) repeal the current requirement for adjusting the allocation of discretionary spending in the House of Representatives if a budget resolution is not adopted by April 15, and
• (2) allow the joint explanatory statement accompanying a conference report on a budget resolution to include an allocation of the level for the global war on terrorism (GWOT) for that fiscal year

Prescribes administrative and legislative procedures for emergency and GWOT adjustments. Amends the CBA to make it out of order in both chambers to consider legislation, if the provisions of such measure have the net effect of increasing direct spending for the current year, the budget year, and the four or nine fiscal years following that budget year. (Thus enforces Cut-As-You-Go.) Repeals Clause 10 of Rule XXI (Restrictions on Certain Bills) of the Rules of the House of Representatives. Amends the CBA to permit waiver or suspension in the Senate of certain prohibitions under such Act and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Members.