... [J]ust to ensure we don’t have another bruising government shutdown fight over cuts in September, the deal deems and passes the 2012 budget. Yes, that’s right, the old Gephardt Rule or Slaughter Solution, is back. What’s deem and pass? It’s a legislative trick that essentially means that Congress will consider the budget passed without ever actually having to vote on it.
Neither the House nor the Senate Appropriations Committee has even started formally considering the Labor-HHS appropriations bill that includes Social Security, so how can we now rule out a government shutdown after September 30, 2011?
3 comments:
The debt limit bill contains caps on discretionary spending, not just for FY 2012, but for every year from now until 2021. For FY 2012 and FY 2013 the bill specifies separate caps for security-related and non-security related categories. For FY 2014- FY 2021, there is a single caps for all discretionary spending. So the budget for 2012 and the subsequent years have not been developed and voted on, but there would be in place caps on the levels of discretionary spending that any of these budgets are allowed. In this sense, the top-line budget number for these years is being specified in advance in the debt limit bill.
There is also new budget authority in the debt limit bill for the Social Security Administration to conduct continuing disability reviews and SSI redeterminations. These are specified as caps for each FY from 2012-2021. In that sense, SSA comes off much better than most federal agencies because it is guaranteed new budget authority—for these specific purposes—in each of the next 10 years.
Also I note that the “super Congress” Select Committee can vote out recommendations by a simple majority of 7 of its 12 members.
There are also caps specified—in the form of new budget authority—for the Department of Health and Human Services to use in its health care anti-fraud activities.
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