H.R. 143 — Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act

This section provides the short title of the Act as the “Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act.”

This section establishes a recurring 3-year budgetary level reduction cycle for unauthorized programs beginning in fiscal year 2026. It defines “budgetary level” as the allocation under section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633(a)) to the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations in a concurrent budget resolution, including allocations made under a deeming resolution; defines “expiring fiscal year” as the fiscal year in which a program’s authorizations of appropriations expire; and defines “unauthorized program” as any program or activity listed in the Congressional Budget Office’s annual report, “Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations,” or a successor report, for which authorizations expire in the year the report is published. It also treats any unauthorized program funded in fiscal year 2026 whose authorizations expired before that year as if its authorizations expire during fiscal year 2026 for purposes of the Act.

This section reduces the budgetary level for any unauthorized program by 10 percent of the funds appropriated for that program in the expiring fiscal year when the budgetary level is first established for the fiscal year immediately following expiration of the authorization. It further reduces the budgetary level by 15 percent of the funds appropriated in the expiring fiscal year for the second or third fiscal year after expiration if the program remains unauthorized. It also directs the chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees to transmit the revised budgetary level to the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees after any such reduction.

This section terminates any unauthorized program that still causes a budgetary level reduction under section 3(b) in the third fiscal year after its expiring fiscal year, effective October 1 of the fiscal year immediately following that third fiscal year. It also allows unobligated balances to remain available after termination only to record, adjust, and liquidate valid obligations incurred before the termination date. In addition, it prohibits the obligation of any funds for a program terminated under this section unless Congress expressly reauthorizes the program for an authorization of appropriations period of not more than 3 years.

This section exempts an unauthorized program from a budgetary level reduction under section 3 if Congress expressly reauthorizes the program during the fiscal year in which the reduction is established, and it restores the reduction on the date of reauthorization. This section limits that exemption to reauthorizations that include a sunset provision authorizing appropriations for not more than 3 years.