“A bill to establish a commission on fiscal responsibility and reform.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section defines key terms for purposes of the Act, including (1) "co-chair" as an individual appointed to serve as a co-chair of the Fiscal Commission under section 3(a)(3)(B)(i); (2) "direct spending" and (3) "discretionary appropriations," each with the meaning given in section 250(c) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(c)); (4) "Fiscal Commission" as the commission established under section 3(a)(1)(A); (5) "implementing bill" as a bill or joint resolution consisting solely of legislative text approved and submitted by the Fiscal Commission under specified procedures in section 3(a)(2)(B); and (6) "outside expert" as an individual who is not an elected official or federal or state officer or employee.
This section establishes a Fiscal Commission in Congress, effective 60 days after enactment, to educate the public on the nation's fiscal trajectory—including debt risks to long-term sustainability and future generations—and to identify policies that (1) improve the federal government's long-term fiscal condition by reducing debt and deficits; (2) achieve a public debt-to-GDP ratio of not more than 100% by FY2039; and (3) ensure at least 75-year solvency for federal trust funds. The commission must propose recommendations addressing current and projected levels of discretionary appropriations, direct spending, revenues, and the revenues-expenditures gap; House and Senate committees may submit related recommendations within 60 days of establishment. The commission may issue an interim report on specified budgetary and macroeconomic findings and, between November 4, 2026, and November 13, 2026, must vote on a final report containing such findings, legislative language to implement recommendations, and a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of budgetary effects. Final report approval requires a majority vote of commission members, including at least two appointed by Democrats and two by Republicans; approved reports and legislative language, plus any additional or minority views filed within three days of the vote, must be made public within 24 hours and transmitted to Congress within three days thereafter.
This section establishes expedited floor consideration procedures in the House of Representatives and Senate for implementing bills consisting solely of legislative language approved and submitted by the Fiscal Commission under section 3(a)(2)(B). In the House, the majority leader (or designee) must introduce the bill within three legislative days of submission (or any Member thereafter); committees must report it without amendment within five legislative days or be automatically discharged; a motion to proceed is in order thereafter (non-debatable); the bill is considered as read with all points of order waived, two hours of equally divided debate, and the previous question ordered to passage; and the vote on passage follows House Rule XX, cl. 8. In the Senate, the majority and minority leaders (or designees) must introduce the bill on the submission day (or next session day); a motion to proceed by the majority leader (or designee) is in order after two session days (or anytime thereafter by any Senator), non-debatable and not subject to motions to postpone, commit, or reconsider; if agreed to, the bill becomes unfinished business with all points of order waived and no amendments, motions to postpone, or motions to commit allowed. The section further prohibits amendments to implementing bills in either chamber; provides that a bill received from the other chamber is not referred to committee and supplants the receiving chamber's version at the passage vote (except for Senate revenue measures in the House); and coordinates procedures if one chamber does not act.
This section declares that the provisions of section 4 constitute an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate and House of Representatives, are considered part of the rules of each House (superseding other rules only to the extent inconsistent), and may be changed by either House in the same manner as any other rule.