Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act

Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act

This bill makes several modifications to the federal budget process, including the procedures for considering congressional budget resolutions and adjusting the debt limit.

Among other modifications, the bill includes provisions that

• require biennial congressional budget resolutions, instead of the annual budget resolutions required under current law;
• retain the existing annual appropriations process;
• require a budget resolution to specify a target for the ratio of the debt held by the public to the gross domestic product (GDP) for each year covered by the resolution;
• require the debt-to-GDP target to be enforced using a reconciliation process that requires deficit reduction legislation to be considered using expedited legislative procedures;
• allow a budget resolution to include the amount of tax expenditures;
• provide for automatic adjustments of the debt limit and statutory discretionary spending limits to conform to the levels in the budget resolution;
• modify the procedures for considering budget resolutions in the Senate;
• allow budget resolutions that have bipartisan support and meet specified requirements to be considered in the Senate using expedited procedures;
• modify and establish budget points of order that may be raised against legislation;
• rename the Committee on the Budget of the Senate as the Committee on Fiscal Control and the Budget of the Senate; and
• expand reporting requirements for congressional committees, the Office of Management and Budget, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Government Accountability Office.