Pay America First Act
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Pay America First Act - Makes this Act effective if the federal government defaults on its legal obligations for the first time in its history, as evidenced by one or more of certain actions taken by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Counts among such actions withholding from making payments of debt obligations to foreign bond holders, including those in China, Iran, and the Cayman Islands, before:
making a payment of a debt obligation to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds or redeeming a debt obligation held by those trust funds;
redeeming a debt obligation held by a trust fund providing veterans benefits, including the Veterans Special Life Insurance Fund, the Veterans Reopened Insurance Fund, the Armed Forces Retirement Home Fund, and the Court of Veteran Appeals Retirement Fund;
redeeming a debt obligation held by an intragovernmental fund to assist Americans during a natural disaster, including reserves for the National Flood Insurance Program and other disaster relief funds appropriated to the President; or
making a payment of debt obligations to the Department of Defense (DOD), including civilian and uniformed personnel (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force), military active pay and military retirement benefits, and military benefits to their families.
Requires the Secretary, after exercising such authority, to report each week to Congress on the payments issued and amount of revenues incoming and remaining reserves for upcoming payments issued.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on October 16, 2013. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on October 16, 2013: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Pete Gallego (D-TX) introduced it on October 16, 2013. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on October 16, 2013, 4712 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4712 days ago, on October 16, 2013.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers