HELP Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Budget.
Honest Expenditure Limitation Program Act of 2010 or HELP Act - Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to make it out of order in the House of Representatives or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report that includes any provision that would exceed specified non-security discretionary spending limits for FY2011-FY2020.
Limits non-security discretionary spending limits for FY2011-FY2015 to the level provided in FY2010, but reduced each year on a pro rata basis so that the level for FY2015 does not exceed the level for FY2008. Limits the spending levels for FY2016-FY2020 to the FY2015 spending level.
Defines "non-security discretionary spending" as discretionary spending other than spending for the Department of Defense (DOD), homeland security activities, intelligence-related activities within the Department of State, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and national security related activities in the Department of Energy (DOE).
Requires the President to issue a sequestration order, effective on issuance, if the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in its Final Discretionary Sequestration Report estimates that any sequestration is required.
Subjects to permanent cancellation any budgetary resources sequestered from any account, except those in special fund accounts or offsetting collections sequestered in appropriation accounts. Applies the same percentage sequestration to all programs, projects, and activities within a budget account.
Requires Discretionary Sequestration Preview Reports by: (1) OMB to the President and Congress; and (2) the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to Congress. Requires the OMB report to explain the difference between OMB and CBO estimates for each item.
Requires the Final Discretionary Sequestration Reports to set forth estimates for: (1) the current year and each subsequent year through 2014; (2) the current year, if applicable, and, the budget year, the new budget authority and the breach, if any; (3) the sequestration percentages necessary to eliminate the breach; and (4) the level of enacted sequesterable budget authority, and resulting estimated outlays to be sequestered for each account.
The summary continues for 1 more paragraph. 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 March 9, 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 March 9, 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?
Jim Inhofe (R-OK) introduced it on March 9, 2010, and 19 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 19 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 March 9, 2010, 6076 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 6076 days ago, on March 9, 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