S 360 · 112th Congress 2011–2013, ended

HELP Act

Introduced Feb 16, 2011 Originated Senate Sponsor James M. Inhofe R-OK

Fact sheet

Latest action · Feb 16, 2011 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.

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. IntroducedFeb 16, 2011
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Honest Expenditure Limitation Program Act of 2011 or HELP Act - Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to make it out of order in the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report that includes any provision that would exceed specified non-security discretionary spending limits for FY2011-FY2021.

Limits non-security discretionary spending limits: (1) for FY2011-FY2016 to the levels provided in FY2008; and (2) for FY2017-FY2021 to such amount adjusted annually for inflation.

Defines "non-security discretionary spending" as discretionary spending other than spending for the Department of Defense (DOD), homeland security activities, intelligence-related activities within the Department of State, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and national security related activities in the Department of Energy (DOE).

Requires the President to issue a sequestration order, effective on issuance, if the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in its Final Discretionary Sequestration Report estimates that any sequestration is required.

Subjects to permanent cancellation any budgetary resources sequestered from any account, except those in special fund accounts or offsetting collections sequestered in appropriation accounts. Applies the same percentage sequestration to all programs, projects, and activities within a budget account.

Requires Discretionary Sequestration Preview Reports by: (1) OMB to the President and Congress; and (2) the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to Congress. Requires the OMB report to explain the difference between OMB and CBO estimates for each item.

Requires the Final Discretionary Sequestration Reports to set forth estimates for: (1) the current year and each subsequent year through 2021; (2) the current year, if applicable, and, the budget year, the new budget authority and the breach, if any; (3) the sequestration percentages necessary to eliminate the breach; and (4) the level of enacted sequesterable budget authority, and resulting estimated outlays to be sequestered for each account.

Sets forth sequestration enforcement mechanisms.

Cosponsors 19

Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Feb 16, 2011.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-IAChuck GrassleyOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-IDJames E. RischOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-WYJohn BarrassoOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-ARJohn BoozmanOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-TXJohn CornynOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-SDJohn ThuneOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-GAJohnny IsaksonOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-AZJon KylOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-TXKay Bailey HutchisonOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-SCLindsey GrahamOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-FLMarco RubioOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-WYMichael B. EnziOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-NEMike JohannsOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-IDMike CrapoOriginalFeb 16, 2011
R-NCRichard BurrOriginalFeb 16, 2011
Show all 19 cosponsors

Actions 3

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Feb 16, 2011Introduced in Senate
  2. Feb 16, 2011Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.
  3. Feb 16, 2011Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S793)

Related bills 1

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

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
SRES 46A resolution requiring that legislation considered by the Senate to be confined to a single issue.Related billFeb 8, 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. Feb 16, 2011Introduced in 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.