Economics and Public Finance Desk
Economics and Public Finance Bills
16 bills in the Economics and Public Finance desk, ordered for current relevance and readability.
Economics and Public FinanceHR-182-119Latest action: Jan 3, 20250 readersIn Committee
Default Prevention Act
Sponsored by Tom McClintock
Under current law, the federal government operates under a debt ceiling established in section 3101 of title 31, United States Code. When the Treasury Department reaches this limit, it cannot borrow additional funds without Congressional action to raise the ceiling. This creates a situation where the government cannot pay all its obligations simultaneously once the debt limit is hit. The Treasury currently has limited authority to manage payments during such periods, and there is no statutory framework that explicitly prioritizes which bills get paid first when cash runs short. The Default Prevention Act requires the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a five-tier payment hierarchy when the debt ceiling is reached. Tier I obligations—including interest and principal on publicly held debt, Social Security and Medicare trust fund payments, and Medicare program expenses—must be paid first. Tier II obligations covering Department of Defense expenses and Veterans Affairs benefits come second. Tier III obligations (all other federal spending) can be paid only after Tier II obligations are fully covered. Tier IV obligations, including most executive branch employee compensation and travel expenses, are paid only if Tier II and III obligations can still be met. Tier V obligations—Congressional member compensation—are paid last. The Secretary must issue new debt instruments to cover Tier I payments without counting them against the debt ceiling until Congress acts to modify the limit. Implementation begins immediately upon the debt ceiling being reached. The Treasury must submit weekly reports to the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee detailing payment amounts by tier and any unpaid obligations. The bill does not provide new funding; rather, it creates a mechanism for allocating existing revenue streams. Once Congress raises or suspends the debt ceiling, the special tier system expires and normal payment authority resumes. This framework would force prioritization of certain spending categories over others during any future debt-ceiling impasse, potentially delaying payments for federal employees, contractors, and other non-prioritized obligations.
Economics and Public Finance
Latest updateJan 3, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Economics and Public Finance
Economics and Public FinanceHJRES-8-119Latest action: Jan 3, 20250 readersIn Committee
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide certain line item veto authority to the President.
Sponsored by Tom McClintock
Currently, the President must either sign or veto legislation in its entirety. The Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse, and once the President signs a bill into law, all appropriations contained within it take effect as written. Presidents have long sought the ability to selectively reject specific spending provisions while approving the rest of a bill, arguing this would allow them to eliminate wasteful or unnecessary expenditures. However, the Supreme Court struck down a 1997 federal line-item veto law as unconstitutional, ruling that such authority requires a constitutional amendment rather than legislation. This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment that would authorize the President to reduce appropriations within bills or joint resolutions at the moment of signing. Under the proposed amendment, the President would retain full veto power but gain an additional tool: the ability to approve a bill while simultaneously reducing specific spending amounts. The President would be required to notify Congress within 10 days of exercising this reduction authority. Congress could then vote to disapprove the reduction, and if two-thirds of both the House and Senate voted to reject it, the original appropriation amount would be restored to law. If ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures within seven years, this amendment would fundamentally alter the budget process. The President would gain leverage over individual spending items rather than facing an all-or-nothing choice on legislation. Congress would retain a veto override-style mechanism to restore spending, but would need a supermajority in both chambers to do so. This change would likely shift power toward the executive branch in budget negotiations and could accelerate the pace of appropriations disputes, as Congress would need to respond quickly to presidential reductions or allow them to stand as law.
Economics and Public Finance
Latest updateJan 3, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Economics and Public Finance
Economics and Public FinanceHR-191-119Latest action: Jan 3, 20250 readersIn Committee
Inflation Reduction Act of 2025
Sponsored by Andrew Ogles
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-169) authorized approximately $369 billion in federal spending over ten years to support clean energy development, electric vehicle adoption, energy efficiency improvements, and climate-related initiatives. The law also included tax credits for renewable energy installations, manufacturing incentives for clean technology production, and funding for environmental justice programs. Since its enactment in August 2022, federal agencies have begun distributing funds and processing applications under various grant and tax credit programs established by the law. This bill repeals the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 in its entirety, eliminating all spending authorizations, tax credits, and grant programs created under that law. The bill also rescinds any unobligated balances—funds that have been appropriated but not yet spent or committed—returning those resources to the federal treasury. This action removes the legal authority for the Department of Energy, Department of the Treasury, Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies to continue administering programs funded through the 2022 law. The repeal takes effect upon enactment. Agencies would cease accepting new applications and halt new funding commitments under affected programs. Existing contracts and obligations already executed would generally remain in place, though the legal framework supporting future disbursements would disappear. The rescission of unobligated balances would reduce federal spending authority immediately, affecting renewable energy grants, electric vehicle tax credits, manufacturing support programs, and environmental remediation initiatives currently in development or awaiting implementation.
Economics and Public Finance
Latest updateJan 3, 2025
Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Financial Services, Science, Space, and Technology, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Economics and Public Finance
Economics and Public FinanceHR-199-119Latest action: Jan 3, 20250 readersIn Committee
Implementing DOGE Act
Sponsored by Claudia Tenney
Under current law, Congress appropriates funds annually for federal agencies and programs across numerous spending categories. These appropriations grow from year to year based on inflation, population changes, and policy decisions. Nonsecurity discretionary spending—which covers everything from education and environmental protection to transportation and scientific research, but excludes defense and security-related budgets—has historically increased without automatic constraints tied to growth rates. There is no existing mechanism that automatically reduces spending if appropriations grow beyond a set threshold. The Implementing DOGE Act requires automatic rescissions of nonsecurity discretionary appropriations beginning in fiscal year 2026. The mechanism works as follows: if total nonsecurity discretionary spending for a given fiscal year exceeds the previous year's spending by more than one percent, the excess amount above that one-percent threshold is rescinded—meaning it is cancelled and returned to the Treasury—on a pro rata basis across all affected programs. This proportional cut applies uniformly to all nonsecurity discretionary accounts, regardless of program type or priority. The rescission takes effect automatically on the day after appropriations are enacted for the entire federal government through September 30 of each fiscal year. No additional congressional action is required to trigger the cuts. The mechanism applies indefinitely to all future fiscal years. Because the rescission is pro rata, every nonsecurity discretionary program funded that year experiences the same percentage reduction if the threshold is exceeded. This creates ongoing uncertainty for federal agencies and programs dependent on discretionary funding, as final budget levels would not be determined until after appropriations are enacted.
Economics and Public Finance
Latest updateJan 3, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations.
Economics and Public Finance