Budget Issues Budget Enforcement Compliance Report

AIMD-99-100 Budget Issues: Budget Enforcement Compliance Report

Assesses compliance by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) with the requirements of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (DCA), as amended. This assessment covers OMB and CBO reports issued for legislation enacted during the 1st session of the 107th Congress, which ended on Dec. 20, 2001. To assess compliance with the DCA, the authors reviewed OMB and CBO sequestration reports issued under the act to determine if they complied with all of the act's requirements. In addition they reviewed the scorekeeping reports issued by OMB and CBO to: identify major scoring differences, and determine the timeliness of the reports. Charts and tables.

This report responds to your request that we assess compliance by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) with the requirements of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended (the Deficit Control Act). Our assessment covers OMB and CBO reports issued for legislation enacted during the 1st session of the 106th Congress, which ended on November 22,1999. According to CBO's Final Sequestration Report issued on December 2, 1999, discretionary outlays for all spending categories combined are estimated to exceed the spending limits by $16.6 billion for fiscal year 2000. CBO estimated that a 4 percent sequestration would be required for the Overall Discretionary category. In contrast, OMB's Final Sequestration Report, issued on January 25, 2000, estimated than no sequestration of discretionary spending will be required for fiscal year 2000. Since by law OMB's estimates are controlling, there will be no sequester in fiscal year 2000.

AIMD-98-57 Budget Issues: Budget Enforcement Compliance Report