Conrad Rule: Reconciliation Cannot Increase the Deficit
- Make it out of order to consider in the House/Senate any reconciliation legislation causing or increasing a deficit or reducing a surplus in: (1) the current year or the budget year, (2) the current fiscal year, the budget year, and the four ensuing fiscal years; or (3) the current fiscal year, the budget year, and the nine ensuing fiscal years.
- Permits waiver or suspension of such requirements, or successful appeals from rulings of the Chair, only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths of the House or Senate.
Improve the Integrity of the Budget Process
- No Current Policy Baseline: A current policy baseline treats expiring or temporary tax provisions as permanent. To address the long-term problems of a current policy baseline, adopt rules requiring the Budget Committee to reflect current law for expiring provisions and to exclude emergency-designated and supplemental appropriations from the projected baseline.
- No Discretionary Funding In Reconciliation: To address increasing use of reconciliation bills to fund programs typically funded through annual appropriations, establish points of order against the inclusion of funding for accounts ordinarily funded through annual appropriations.
PAYGO Rule
- The House/Senate PAYGO rule should require that any legislation affecting direct (mandatory) spending or revenues cannot increase the deficit over the 1-year, 5‑year or 10‑year budget window, as determined by Budget Committee estimates using CBO baselines.
- Both expenditure reductions and tax increases should be considered as allowable offsets.
Rules for Improving Enforcement of Statutory PAYGO
Note: Statutory PAYGO requires the Office of Management and Budget to keep a scorecard of all legislation impacting mandatory spending that increases the deficit. If the scorecard at the end of Congressional session shows a net deficit increase, then the President must issue a sequestration order requiring across the board cuts to non-exempt mandatory budget accounts.
- Prohibit wiping the scorecard for PAYGO and only allow it to be rolled forward.
- Prohibit the Rules Committee from reporting a bill with a PAYGO waiver or card wipe without a separate vote;
- In the event the card is wiped or rolled, a portion of the across the board cuts that would have otherwise happened shall still be ordered.
