Budget Control Act of 2011
Latest action. Became public lawWhat a bill becomes when enacted, numbered by Congress and order of enactment: Public Law 119-4 is the 4th law of the 119th Congress.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) No: 112-25.
(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the House on August 1, 2011. The summary of that version is repeated here.)
Budget Control Act of 2011 - Title I: Ten-Year Discretionary Caps with Sequester - (Sec. 101) Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to revise sequestration requirements for enforcement of discretionary spending limits (spending caps).
Requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct such a sequestration to eliminate a budget year breach, if any.
Eliminates specific formula requirements for adjustments to discretionary spending limits for: (1) highways, (2) allowances for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), (3) specified allowances for international arrearages, (4) the earned income tax credit (EITC) compliance initiative, (5) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) adoption incentive payments, and (6) conservation.
Requires the OMB sequestration report and the President's budget to include adjustments to discretionary spending limits for the fiscal year and each succeeding year for: (1) emergency appropriations or Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism, (2) health care fraud and abuse control, and (3) disaster relief.
Establishes discretionary spending limits for security and nonsecurity categories for FY2012-FY2021.
Defines "security category" as discretionary appropriations associated with agency budgets for the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the intelligence community management account (95-0401-0-1-054), and all budget accounts in budget function 150 (international affairs).
(Sec. 103) Requires discretionary preview and final sequestration reports to specify estimates for the current year and each subsequent year through 2021 of the applicable discretionary spending limits for each category and an explanation of any adjustments in such limits. Requires: (1) sequestration update reports to include a preview estimate of the adjustment for disaster funding for the upcoming fiscal year, and (2) final sequestration reports for the current year and each subsequent year through 2021 to include a final estimate of the adjustment for disaster funding.
The summary continues for 31 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 "Public Law" stage on August 2, 2011. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
This bill has been enacted. It is law.
The record's latest action, on August 2, 2011: Became Public Law No: 112-25.
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?
THOMAS HARKIN (D-IA) introduced it on February 16, 2011. 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.
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
- SenatePassed
- HousePassed
- PresidentSigned into law