This bill requires the federal government to automatically cut spending to offset any emergency appropriations Congress approves. Whenever Congress designates spending as "emergency" spending during a fiscal year, the Office of Management and Budget must issue sequestration orders (automatic spending cuts) over the following five years that eliminate one-fifth of the emergency spending amount each year, with cuts applied equally across affected programs. The bill exempts Social Security, Medicare, defense, and Veterans Affairs benefits from these automatic cuts, and requires Congress to provide detailed written justifications for why any emergency spending is truly necessary and unanticipated before voting on bills containing such spending. The legislation applies to both discretionary spending (annual appropriations) and direct spending (entitlements), with cuts applied only within their respective categories. This measure aims to prevent emergency spending designations from increasing the overall federal deficit by forcing lawmakers to reduce other spending to compensate.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.