Fiscal Freeze Act of 2010
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.
Fiscal Freeze Act of 2010 - Congressional Accountability and Line Item Veto Act of 2010 - Amends the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to authorize the President to propose the repeal of any congressional earmark or the cancellation (line item veto) of any limited tariff or targeted tax benefit.
Dedicates any such repeal or cancellation solely to deficit reduction or increase of a surplus.
Prescribes procedures for expedited consideration in each chamber for such proposals.
Authorizes the President temporarily to withhold congressional earmarks from obligation or suspend a limited tariff or targeted tax benefit.
Expresses the sense of Congress on abuse of proposed repeals and cancellations.
Makes it out of order in both chambers to consider legislation containing a congressional earmark or an earmark attributable to the President for any fiscal year in which there is or will be a deficit as determined by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Permits waiver or suspension of such prohibition, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Senate.
Directs the chairs of the congressional budget committees to each maintain a deficit reduction Discretionary Account and a deficit reduction Mandatory Account.
Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to define the total level of discretionary spending for all non-security discretionary spending programs, projects, and activities to mean, in any fiscal year through FY2020 in which there is a deficit, an amount of discretionary spending outlays not exceeding the discretionary spending outlays for the preceding fiscal year as adjusted for inflation.
Establishes total spending limits for FY2010-FY2020 and thereafter, as well as total deficit limits for FY2011-FY2020 and thereafter.
Prescribes administrative procedures for: (1) spending reduction orders; and (2) sequestration reports for discretionary spending limits, total spending limits, and deficit limits.
Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA) with respect to spending and deficit limit enforcement mechanisms.
The summary continues for 10 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on February 23, 2010. 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 23, 2010: 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 Senate
- Passage by the House
- 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 111th Congress (2009-10), 383 of the 10,778 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.6 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?
EVAN BAYH (D-IN) introduced it on February 23, 2010, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
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 23, 2010, 6090 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 6090 days ago, on February 23, 2010.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 111th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2011 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
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers