Budget resolution FY2009

Sets forth the congressional budget for the federal government for FY2009, including the appropriate budgetary levels for FY2008 and FY2010-FY2013.

Title I: Recommended Levels and Amounts - (Sec. 101) Lists recommended budgetary levels and amounts, for FY2008-FY2013, with respect to: (1) federal revenues; (2) new budget authority; (3) budget outlays; (4) deficits (on-budget); (5) debt subject to limit; and (6) debt held by the public.

(Sec. 102) Lists the appropriate levels of new budget authority, outlays, and administrative expenses for Social Security, U.S. Postal Service discretionary administrative expenses, and specified major functional categories for FY2008-FY2013.

Title II: Reserve Funds - Subtitle A: House Reserve Funds - (Sec. 201) Creates certain deficit-neutral reserve funds, subject to specified conditions, for legislation concerning: (1) the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP); (2) America's veterans and servicemembers; (3) education benefits for servicemembers, veterans, and their families; (4) infrastructure investment; (5) renewable energy and energy efficiency; (6) middle-income tax relief and economic equity; (7) alternative minimum tax revision; (8) higher education; (9) affordable housing; (10) Medicare improvements; (11) health care quality, effectiveness, and efficiency; (12) Medicaid and other programs; (13) a 9/11 health program; (14) trade adjustment assistance (TAA) and unemployment insurance modernization; (15) county payments legislation; (16) San Joaquin River restoration and Navajo Nation Water Rights settlements; (17) the National Park Centennial Fund; (18) child support enforcement; and (19) children and families.

(Sec. 220) Authorizes the Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, for FY2009-FY2013, to increase the revenue aggregates by $340.570 billion for such fiscal years, if the House adopts legislation: (1) increasing the deficit; or (2) reducing the surplus for FY2008-FY2013 or for FY2008-FY2018 and decreasing total revenues for FY2009-FY2013 below the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline for this budget resolution.

Subtitle B: Senate Reserve Funds - (Sec. 221) Provides for certain deficit-neutral reserve funds, subject to certain conditions, for legislation for: (1) strengthening and stimulating the American economy and providing economic relief to American families; (2) improving education; (3) investing in America's infrastructure; (4) investing in clean energy, preserving the environment, and providing for certain settlements; (5) enhancing certain health benefits America's veterans and servicemembers; (6) enhancing certain education benefits for servicemembers, veterans, and their families; (7) improving America's health; (8) revising the alternative minimum tax (AMT); (9) revising judicial pay and judgeships; (10) improving immigration enforcement and reform; (11) financing development of science parks; (12) terminating deductions from mineral revenue payments to states; (13) increasing use of recovery audits; (14) enhancing food safety; (15) establishing a demonstration project for state Medicaid coverage of low-income HIV-infected individuals; (16) reducing the income threshold for the refundable child tax credit, and other selected tax relief policies; and (17) establishing a 9/11 health program.

Title III: Budget Enforcement - Subtitle A: House Enforcement Provisions - (Sec . 301) Provides for adjustments to discretionary spending limits, budgetary aggregates, and allocations for: (1) continuing disability reviews and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) redeterminations by the Social Security Administration (SSA); (2) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax compliance; (3) the health care fraud and abuse control program; and (4) unemployment insurance improper payments reviews.

Provides that, if legislation is adopted that makes appropriations for FY2008 or FY2009 for overseas deployments and related activities, then the allocation to the House Committee on Appropriations may be adjusted up to the amounts of budget authority and new outlays provided in this resolution for such fiscal year. Exempts from certain requirements of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA) any appropriations for such deployments and activities that exceed such budget authority.

Exempts from certain CBA requirements any new budget authority and outlays resulting from adoption of legislation that makes emergency appropriations for nondefense discretionary spending.

Directs the Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget to make appropriate adjustments in allocations and aggregates to reflect the difference between any supplemental FY2008 appropriations and the corresponding levels assumed in this resolution.

(Sec. 302) Prohibits House legislation that would require advance appropriations, except for certain FY2010 or FY2011 programs, projects, activities, or accounts.

Subtitle B: Senate Enforcement Provisions - (Sec. 311) Requires the Director of CBO to prepare for each bill and joint resolution reported from committee (including amendments and conference reports), except measures within the Senate Committee on Appropriations' jurisdiction, an estimate of whether the measure would cause, relative to current law, a net increase in deficits in excess of $5 billion in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning with the first fiscal year that is a decade after the budget year provided for in the most recently adopted budget resolution.

Makes it out of order to consider in the Senate any legislation that would cause such a net increase in deficits in such periods.

Permits waiver or suspension of such prohibition, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Senate.

(Sec. 312) Makes it out of order to consider in the Senate any legislation that would cause the discretionary spending limits in this section to be exceeded.

Permits waiver or suspension of such prohibition, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Senate.

Extends Senate discretionary spending limits for FY2008-FY2009.

Provides for adjustments to discretionary spending limits, budgetary aggregates, and allocations for: (1) continuing disability reviews and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) redeterminations for the Social Security Administration (SSA); (2) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax enforcement; (3) health care fraud and abuse control; (4) unemployment insurance improper payments reviews; (5) adjustments for overseas deployments and other activities; and (6) supplemental appropriations for FY2008 and FY2009, if such legislation is enacted.

(Sec. 313) Makes it out of order to consider in the Senate any legislation that would require advanced appropriations other than for: (1) any FY2010-FY2011 programs, projects, activities, or accounts identified in the accompanying joint explanatory statement of managers, but only in an aggregate of up to $28.852 billion in new budget authority in each year; and (2) the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Permits waiver or suspension of such prohibition, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Senate.

(Sec. 314) Makes it out of order to consider in the Senate any legislation which includes a provision that constitutes a change in mandatory programs producing net costs that would have been estimated as affecting direct spending or receipts under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) were they included in non-appropriations legislation.

Subjects such a provision to a point of order if: (1) it would increase budget authority in at least one of the nine fiscal years that follow the budget year and over the total of the budget year and the nine ensuing fiscal years; (2) it would increase net outlays over the total period of such ensuing fiscal years; and (3) the sum total of all changes in mandatory programs in the legislation would increase such net outlays.

Permits waiver or suspension of such prohibition, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Senate.

(Sec. 315) Makes it out of order to consider in the Senate any legislation (except measures within the Committee on Appropriation's jurisdiction) that would cause a net increase in the deficit in excess of $10 billion in any fiscal year provided for in the most recently adopted budget resolution unless it is fully offset over all fiscal years provided for in such resolution.

Permits waiver or suspension of such prohibition, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths (60) of the Senate.

Subtitle C: Other Provisions - (Sec. 321) Requires all House and Senate committees to: (1) review programs within their jurisdiction to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in program spending, giving particular scrutiny to issues raised by Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports; and (2) recommend, based on these oversight efforts and committee performance reviews, improved governmental performance in annual views and estimates reports to the appropriate Committee on the Budget.

(Sec. 322) Requires the joint explanatory statement accompanying the conference report on any budget resolution in the House or Senate to include in its allocations to the appropriate Committee on Appropriations amounts for the discretionary administrative expenses of the SSA and of the Postal Service.

Title IV: Policy - (Sec. 401) Declares the policy of the House of Representatives on: (1) middle-income tax relief; and (2) defense priorities.

Title V: Sense of the Senate and Congress - Subtitle A: Sense of the Senate - (Sec. 501) Expresses the sense of the Senate on Medicaid administrative regulations.

Subtitle B: Sense of Congress - (Sec. 511) Expresses the sense of Congress on: (1) servicemembers' and veterans' health care and other priorities; (2) homeland security; (3) long-term fiscal reform; (4) waste, fraud, and abuse; (5) extension of the statutory PAYGO rule; (6) long-term budgeting; (7) affordable health coverage; (8) pay parity; (9) subprime lending and foreclosures; (10) the need to maintain and build upon efforts to fight hunger; (11) the importance of child support enforcement; and (12) the Innovation Agenda of the President's Council on Innovation and Competitiveness under the America COMPETES Act.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov