The "Deeming Resolution": A Budget Enforcement Tool

Abstract

"Deeming resolution" is a term that refers to legislation deemed to serve as an annual budget resolution for purposes of establishing enforceable budget levels for a budget cycle. A deeming resolution is used when the House and Senate are late in reaching final agreement on a budget resolution or fail to reach agreement altogether. The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires the annual adoption of a budget resolution establishing aggregate levels of revenues, spending, the debt limit, and the surplus or deficit, as well as allocations of spending. Enforcement of the budget resolution relies primarily upon points of order and reconciliation procedures. With regard to the enforcement of budget aggregates and committee spending allocations, the major points of order are found in Sections 311 and 302 of the act, respectively. The term "deeming resolution" is not officially defined, nor is there any specific statute or rule authorizing such legislation. Instead, the use of a deeming resolution simply represents the House and Senate employing regular legislative procedures to deal with the issue on an ad hoc basis.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 17, 2010
Accession Number
ADA522214

Entities

People

  • Robert Keith

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Automatic
  • Budgets
  • Congress
  • Discretionary Spending
  • Emergencies
  • Federal Budgets
  • General Practice
  • Governments
  • House Of Representatives
  • Information Operations
  • Insurance
  • Law
  • Mass Transportation
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Social Security

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting
  • Systems Analysis and Design