S 1340 · 112th Congress 2011โ€“2013, ended

Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011

Latest action · Jul 11, 2011 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 97.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedJul 7, 2011
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011 - Reduces the estimated committee allocation of the appropriate levels of budget totals for FY2012 for the Senate Committee on Appropriations to: (1) $1.137 trillion in total new budget authority, and (2) $1.277 trillion in total budget outlays.

Expresses the sense of Congress that it should enact comprehensive tax reform that lowers marginal rates, broadens the base, and simplifies the tax code to increase economic growth while generating revenues that are in line with the historical average of 18% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA) to establish the discretionary spending limits for FY2012-FY2021 for defense and nondefense categories.

Authorizes the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget to adjust such discretionary spending limits, budgetary aggregates in the most recently adopted concurrent budget resolution, and CBA committee allocations if a bill or joint resolution is reported making appropriations for FY2012-FY2017 that provides funding for overseas deployments and activities undertaken as a result of a declaration of war or congressional authorization of force. Limits such adjustments.

Makes it out of order in both chambers to consider any legislation that includes any provision that would cause total on-budget mandatory spending to exceed specified discretionary spending limits. Exempts from such limits the mandatory components of: (1) Social Security, function 650; (2) Medicare, function 570; (3) Veterans Benefits and Services, function 700; and (4) Net Interest, function 900.

Makes it out of order in both chambers to consider legislation that includes any provision that would cause total mandatory spending for Social Security to exceed specified limits for total outlays for FY2012-FY2021. Makes such requirement inapplicable if the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determines that projected outlays are expected to exceed such limits due to changes in cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) contained in present law.

Makes it out of order in both chambers to consider legislation that includes any provision that would cause total mandatory spending for Medicare or for Veterans Benefits and Service to exceed specified limits for total outlays for FY2012-FY2021.

Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to require the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make publicly available in the Federal Register an annual report containing expected budget authority and outlays. Requires OMB, if such report shows any category exceeding specified spending caps, to prepare, and the President to issue and include in that report, a sequestration order that reduces budgetary resources by an amount sufficient to bring spending in line with that category's statutory cap. Prescribes requirements for calculating and implementing such sequestration.

Authorizes Congress to override a sequestration order through the passage of a law that either waves or supersedes the spending limitations for that category of federal spending for that fiscal year.

Subjects any motion in the Senate to move to consideration of a bill to waive, modify, or in any way alter a sequestration order (except for defense spending while the nation is engaged in a justified conflict) to a point of order that can only be waived through an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Members.

Prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury from exercising additional borrowing authority until the date that the Archivist of the United States transmits to the states for their ratification S.J. Res. 10 as introduced on March 31, 2011, a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, or a similar amendment provided it requires that total outlays not exceed total receipts, that contains a spending limitation as a percentage of GDP, and requires that tax increases be approved by a super-majority vote in both chambers.

Increases the public debt from $14.294 trillion to $16.7 trillion on the date such legislation is transmitted to the states.

Cosponsors 39

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jul 7, 2011 to Jul 20, 2011; 20 are original cosponsors, there from the day it was introduced.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-TNBob CorkerOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-LADavid VitterOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-ALJeff SessionsOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-SCJim DeMintOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-WYJohn BarrassoOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-ARJohn BoozmanOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-SDJohn ThuneOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-GAJohnny IsaksonOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-NHKelly AyotteOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-SCLindsey GrahamOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-FLMarco RubioOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-UTOrrin G. HatchOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-KSPat RobertsOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-PAPatrick J. ToomeyOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-KYRand PaulOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-OHRob PortmanOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-MSRoger F. WickerOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-WIRon JohnsonOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-MORoy BluntOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-OKTom CoburnOriginalJul 7, 2011
R-OKJames M. InhofeJul 13, 2011
R-KSJerry MoranJul 13, 2011
R-TXJohn CornynJul 13, 2011
R-NEMike JohannsJul 13, 2011
R-NCRichard BurrJul 13, 2011
R-GASaxby ChamblissJul 13, 2011
R-INDaniel CoatsJul 14, 2011
R-NDJohn HoevenJul 14, 2011
R-TXKay Bailey HutchisonJul 14, 2011
R-TNLamar AlexanderJul 14, 2011
R-WYMichael B. EnziJul 14, 2011
R-KYMitch McConnellJul 14, 2011
R-IAChuck GrassleyJul 18, 2011
R-IDJames E. RischJul 18, 2011
R-AZJohn McCainJul 18, 2011
R-IDMike CrapoJul 18, 2011
R-ALRichard C. ShelbyJul 18, 2011
R-NVDean HellerJul 20, 2011
R-INRichard G. LugarJul 20, 2011

Actions 3

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Jul 11, 2011Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 97.
  2. Jul 7, 2011Introduced in Senate
  3. Jul 7, 2011Introduced in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time.

In the Congressional Record 5

Days the Record’s own index lists this bill, newest first, with the pages and the members it names. Pages starting H are the House, S the Senate, E Extensions of Remarks.

WhereIn the RecordMembersDate
SenateDebate and remarks S4624Mitch McConnell R-KYJul 18, 2011
SenateDebate and remarks S4573, S4589, S4592Jeff Sessions R-AL, John Cornyn R-TX, Marco Rubio R-FL, Mike Lee R-UTJul 14, 2011
SenateDebate and remarks S4551Patrick J. Toomey R-PAJul 13, 2011
SenateDebate and remarks S4461Kent Conrad D-NDJul 11, 2011
SenateDebate and remarks S4442, S4459Harry Reid D-NV, Mike Lee R-UTJul 7, 2011

Related bills 2

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
S 1290Spending Cap Act of 2011Related billJun 28, 2011
S 3482Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2012Related billAug 2, 2012

Titles 2

Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.

Official Title as Introduced
A bill to cut, cap, and balance the Federal budget.
Short Titles as Introduced
Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Economics and Public Finance.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Jul 11, 2011Placed on Calendar Senate

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.