MAKE CENTS Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Making Americans Know about Excessive spending through Commonsense Efforts to Notice and Target Shenanigans Act or the MAKE CENTS Act
This bill modifies the federal budget process to add reporting requirements, limit spending at the end of a fiscal year, and impose penalties on Congress for failing to approve a budget resolution or the annual appropriations bills on a timely basis.
Among other changes, the bill
requires federal agencies to report annually to Congress regarding federally funded projects that are more than five years behind schedule or have expenditures that are at least $1 billion more than the original cost estimate for the project;
requires recipients of federal funding to disclose specified details regarding the cost to the federal government and nongovernmental sources;
prohibits an executive agency from spending more in the last 2 months of a fiscal year than the agency's average monthly spending for the previous 10 months;
prohibits Members of Congress from being paid in a fiscal year until both chambers approve the budget resolution and pass all of the regular appropriations bills for that fiscal year; and
limits congressional recesses, adjournments, and travel if Congress has not completed work on a budget resolution and the annual appropriations bills by certain deadlines.
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 11, 2020. 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 11, 2020: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
- 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 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 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?
Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced it on February 11, 2020, and 2 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 2 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 11, 2020, 2450 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2450 days ago, on February 11, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 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