Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate the budget scorekeeping report for February 2019. The report compares current-law levels of spending and revenues with the amounts the Senate agreed to…
Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate the budget scorekeeping report for February 2019. The report compares current-law levels of spending and revenues with the amounts the Senate agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, BBA18. This information is necessary for the Senate Budget Committee to determine whether budgetary points of order lie against pending legislation. The Republican staff of the Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, prepared this report pursuant to section 308(b) of the Congressional Budget Act, CBA.
This is my second scorekeeping report this year. My last filing can be found in the Congressional Record for January 10, 2019. The information included in this report is current through February 25, 2019.
Since my last filing, two bills with significant budgetary effects cleared Congress, the Medicaid Extenders Act of 2019, P.L. 116-3, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, P.L. 116-6.
Budget Committee Republican staff prepared Tables 1-3.
Table 1 gives the amount by which each Senate authorizing committee exceeds or is below its allocation for budget authority and outlays under the most recently adopted budget resolution and the fiscal year 2019 enforceable levels filing. This information is used for enforcing committee allocations pursuant to section 302 of the CBA. Over the current 10-year enforceable window, authorizing committees have increased outlays by a combined $3.4 billion. For this reporting period, as in my last report, 8 of the 16 authorizing committees are not in compliance with their allocations. Two of these committees, Finance and Judiciary, further exacerbated their violations during this work period with the passage of Medicaid Extenders and the authorizing division, Division H, of the final 2019 appropriations bill, respectively. For the Finance Committee, P.L. 116-3 was estimated to increase budget authority over each enforceable period for its allocation, with the largest violation, $120 million, occurring in 2019. For the Judiciary Committee, Division H of P.L. 116-6, which included various immigration extenders, was estimated to increase budget authority and outlays by $30 million over the next 10 years.
Table 2 provides the amount by which the Senate Committee on Appropriations is below or exceeds the statutory spending limits. This information is used to determine points of order related to the spending caps found in sections 312 and 314 of the CBA. Appropriations for fiscal year 2019, displayed in this table, show that the Appropriations Committee is compliant with spending limits for fiscal year 2019. Those limits for regular discretionary spending are $647 billion for accounts in the defense category and $597 billion for accounts in the nondefense category of spending.
The fiscal year 2018 budget resolution contained points of order limiting the use of changes in mandatory programs in appropriations bills, CHIMPs. Table 3, which tracks the CHIMP limit of $15 billion for fiscal year 2019, shows the Appropriations Committee has enacted $15 billion worth of full-year CHIMPs for fiscal year 2019. The fiscal year 2019 CHIMPs were contained in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies division of P.L. 115-245 and the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies division of P.L. 116- 6. This information is used for determining the point of order under section 4102, overall limit, of H. Con. Res. 71, 115th Congress.
In addition to the tables provided by Budget Committee Republican staff, I am submitting CBO tables, which I will use to enforce budget totals approved by Congress.
For fiscal year 2019, CBO estimates that current-law levels are $2.8 billion above and $3.3 billion below enforceable levels for budget authority and outlays, respectively. Revenues are $426 million below the level assumed in the budget resolution. Further, Social Security revenues are at the levels assumed for fiscal year 2019, while Social Security outlays are $4 million above assumed levels for the budget year.
CBO's report also provides information needed to enforce the Senate pay-as-you-go, PAYGO, rule. The PAYGO scorecard shows deficit increases in fiscal year 2019 of $1,930 million--$427 million revenue loss, $1,503 million outlay increase--over the fiscal year 2018-2023 period of $3,337 million--$894 million revenue loss, $2,443 million outlay increase--and over the fiscal year 2018-2028 period of $425 million-- $634 million revenue loss, $209 million outlay decrease. During this work period, one bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, included a statutory exemption for the budgetary effects of its Division H from the Senate's PAYGO scorecard. The Senate's PAYGO rule is enforced by section 4106 of H. Con. Res. 71, 115th Congress.
This submission also includes a table tracking the Senate's budget enforcement activity on the floor since the enforcement filing on May 7, 2018. Since my last report, no new budgetary points of order were raised.
All years in the accompanying tables are fiscal years.
I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables be printed in the Record.