Budget resolution FY1998

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Levels and Amounts

Title II: Budgetary Restraints and Rulemaking

Title III: Sense of Congress, House, and Senate Provisions

Subtitle A: Sense of the Congress

Subtitle B: Sense of the House

Subtitle C: Sense of the Senate

Sets forth the congressional budget for the Government for FY 1998. Sets forth appropriate budgetary levels for FY 1999 through 2002.

Title I: Levels and Amounts - Lists recommended budgetary levels and amounts, for FY 1998 through 2002, with respect to: (1) Federal revenues; (2) new budget authority; (3) budget outlays; (4) deficits; (5) public debt; (6) new direct loan obligations; and (7) new primary loan guarantee commitments.

(Sec. 102) Sets forth for such fiscal years specified amounts of revenues and outlays of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund.

(Sec. 103) Lists the appropriate levels of new budget authority, budget outlays, new direct loan obligations, and new primary loan guarantee commitments for each of specified major functional categories for FY 1998 through 2002.

(Sec. 104) Establishes reconciliation procedures for the Senate.

Sets forth a deadline for submission of specified Senate committee recommendations to the Senate Committee on the Budget. Requires that Committee to report to the Senate a reconciliation bill without any substantive revision of such recommendations.

Sets forth deficit reduction amounts for FY 1998 through 2002 for the Senate committees on: (1) Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; (2) Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and (3) Governmental Affairs. Specifies outlay reductions, for FY 1998 through 2002, for the Senate committees on: (1) Energy and Natural Resources; (2) Finance; (3) Labor and Human Resources; and (4) Veterans' Affairs. Specifies increased outlays for the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Establishes a ceiling on the increase to the statutory limit on the public debt required to be reported by the Senate Committee on Finance.

Directs the Senate Committee on Finance to report a reconciliation bill proposing changes in laws necessary to reduce revenues by up to specified amounts in FY 2002 and for the period of FY 1998 through 2002 . Sets forth requirements relating to: (1) treatment of congressional pay-as-you-go-requirements; and (2) deficit neutral adjustments and limited flexibility on adjustments.

(Sec. 105) Provides instructions for two separate reconciliation bills in the House of Representatives, one for entitlement reforms and the other for tax relief and miscellaneous reforms.

Sets forth deadlines for submission of specified House committee recommendations to the House Committee on the Budget, and for that Committee's report to the House of a reconciliation bill without any substantive revision of such recommendations, for the separate categories of entitlement reform and of tax relief and miscellaneous reforms.

Specifies outlay limits, with respect to entitlement reform and to tax relief and miscellaneous reforms, for FY 1998 through 2002, for the House committees on: (1) Agriculture; (2) Banking and Financial Services; (3) Commerce; (4) Education and the Workforce; (5) Government Reform and Oversight; (6) Transportation and Infrastructure; (7) Veterans' Affairs; and (8) Ways and Means.

Establishes deficit reduction amounts for the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight for FY 1998 through 2002 with respect to the two reform categories.

Lists amounts of revenue increases and increases in the statutory limit on the public debt to be reported by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Sets forth budgetary limits on a children's health initiative.

Title II: Budgetary Restraints and Rulemaking - Establishes certain discretionary spending limits in the Senate for each of FY 1998 through 2002 for defense, nondefense, and discretionary categories. Sets forth related provisions regarding points of order in the Senate, waivers, and appeals.

Declares that the levels of new budget authority, outlays, new entitlement authority, revenues, and deficits for a fiscal year shall be determined on the basis of Senate Budget Committee estimates.

(Sec. 202) Requires the chairmen of the House or Senate Budget Committees to increase the appropriate allocations, budgetary aggregates, and discretionary limits (in the Senate only) specified in appropriations measures reported in the Senate in FY 1998 through 2002, and in the House in FY 1998 or 1999, by the amount of budget authority in such a measure that is the dollar equivalent, in terms of Special Drawing Rights, of: (1) an increase in the U.S. quota as part of the International Monetary Fund Eleventh General Review of Quotas; or (2) any increase in the maximum amount available to the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to the Bretton Woods Agreement Act with respect to new arrangements to borrow.

(Sec. 203) Authorizes the chairmen of the House or Senate Budget Committees to increase by up to a specified amount any allocation in a reported FY 1998 appropriations measure (or conference report) that includes an appropriation for the renewal of expiring contracts for Section 8 housing assistance.

(Sec. 204) Permits the chairmen of the House or Senate Budget Committees to increase by up to specified amounts for FY 1998 and for the period of FY 1998 through 2002 the allocation for any legislation reported (including a conference report) by specified House or Senate committees to reform the Superfund program to facilitate the cleanup of hazardous waste sites.

(Sec. 205) Requires the chairmen of the House or Senate Budget Committees to increase by up to a specified amount for FY 1998 the allocation for any reported legislation (including a conference report) that provides a specified amount in budget authority for FY 1998 for Federal land acquisitions and priority exchanges.

(Sec. 206) Directs the chairmen of the House or Senate Budget Committees to increase by up to specified amounts for FY 1998 through 2002 (FY 1998 and 1999 in the House) the allocation for any reported appropriations measure (including a conference report) that includes an appropriation for arrearages for international organizations, international peacekeeping, and multilateral development banks. Permits increases in discretionary spending limits in the Senate for such purposes but limits the total amount of budget authority and outlays flowing from such adjustments.

(Sec. 207) Authorizes, upon the enactment of specified legislation, the establishment of certain reserve funds, for FY 1998 through 2002, for: (1) intercity passenger rail transportation; (2) mass transit; (3) highways; and (4) surface transportation.

(Sec. 211) Sets forth provisions regarding budgetary treatment of the sale of government assets.

Title III: Sense of Congress, House, and Senate Provisions - Subtitle A: Sense of the Congress - Expresses the sense of the Congress regarding: (1) repayment of the Federal debt; (2) tax cut benefits in the tax reconciliation bill for middle class families; and (3) limits on revenue losses from the tax reconciliation bill.

Subtitle B: Sense of the House - Expresses the sense of the House regarding: (1) creation of a commission on long-term budgetary problems; (2) corporate welfare; (3) baselines; and (4) the desired absence of numerical limits on the States' grant of domestic violence good cause waivers with respect to certain welfare assistance requirements.

Subtitle B (sic): Sense of the Senate - Expresses the sense of the Senate regarding: (1) long-term entitlement reforms, including accuracy in determining changes in the cost of living and efforts to hold mandatory spending to 70 percent of the budget; (2) tactical fighter aircraft acquisition strategy; (3) immediate 100 percent tax deductibility of the health insurance costs of the self-employed (to provide for their children's health coverage); (4) opposition to use of a Medicaid per capita cap; (5) use of added savings under a balanced budget for deficit reduction; (6) reform elements to ensure fairness in Medicare; (7) assistance to Lithuania and Latvia; (8) establishment of a national commission on higher education; (9) a lockbox requirement to ensure all savings from Medicare reform are used to keep the Medicare program solvent; (10) additional programmatic changes to ensure that the primary purpose of the earned income credit is achieved without wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on fraud and error; (11) disaster assistance and veterans' programs funding; (12) enforcement of the bipartisan budget agreement; (13) increased appropriations for the National Institutes of Health; (14) continuation of Supplemental Security Income benefits for certain elderly, legal immigrants; (15) opposition to generating revenues, except for closing tax loopholes, from retroactively increased taxes; (16) continued efforts to reduce the on-budget deficit to balance the budget without counting Social Security surpluses; (17) the desired absence of numerical limits on the States' grant of domestic violence good cause waivers with respect to certain welfare assistance requirements; (18) reform of, and additional funding for, Amtrak; (19) health care needs of low-income pregnant women and children and the impact of Medicaid disproportionate share hospital reform proposals; (20) the deposit of all Federal gasoline taxes into the Highway Trust Fund; (21) increases in the supply of quality child care, early childhood education, and teacher and parent training; (22) fuel taxes and spending from the Highway Trust Fund; (23) tax incentives for the cost of post-secondary education; (24) additional tax relief; (25) differences between estimates of electromagnetic spectrum values and actual revenues derived at auctions; (26) Highway Trust fund resources and State transportation projects; (27) the use of budget savings in the mandatory spending area; (28) Social Security for future retirees; (29) the reserve of revenue windfalls for tax cuts and deficit reduction; (30) continued funding for law enforcement programs to combat violent crime; and (31) resources for a national grassroots volunteer effort to encourage parental education and involvement in youth drug prevention.