Require a PLAN Act
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.
Require Presidential Leadership and No Deficit Act or Require a PLAN Act - Directs the President, if his budget for FY2014, as submitted to Congress, results in a projected deficit in every fiscal year for which estimates are provided in it, to submit by April 1, 2013, a supplemental unified budget (the total level of outlays, total level of receipts, and the resulting deficit or surplus of the U.S. government for a fiscal year).
Requires a supplemental unified budget to include:
the information required by law for the President's budget,
an estimate of the earliest fiscal year in which the supplemental budget is not projected to result in a deficit,
a detailed description of additional policies to be implemented in order to achieve such result (including an evaluation of duplicative agency functions and agency effectiveness, and proposals for consolidating duplicative functions and programs between agencies in the interests of cost-savings),
an explanation of the differences between the President's original FY2014 budget and the supplemental unified budget, and
an estimate of the cost per taxpayer of the annual deficit for each year in which the supplemental unified budget is projected to result in a deficit.
Requires the unified budget to include, under a separate heading entitled "Direct Spending," a category for "Means-Tested Direct Spending and a category for "Nonmeans-Tested Direct Spending" which specify:
the average rate of growth for each category in the total amount of outlays during the 10-year period preceding the budget year,
information on the budget proposals for reform of such programs,
a description of programs which shall be considered means-tested direct spending and nonmeans-tested direct spending, and
an annual estimate of the total amount of outlays for each such program for the period covered by the budget proposal.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House amended" stage on February 6, 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 February 7, 2013: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.
- 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?
Tom Price (R-GA) introduced it on February 1, 2013, and 83 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 83 Republicans.
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 February 1, 2013, 4969 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4963 days ago, on February 7, 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