Section-by-Section Analysis: 2021 Budget Resolution

Section 1. Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2021. This section declares that this resolution is the concurrent resolution for fiscal year 2021 and displays the table of contents of the resolution.

Section 1101. Recommended Levels and Amounts. This section sets the budgetary levels for fiscal years 2021 through 2030. These budgetary levels include total federal revenues, new budget authority, budget outlays, deficits, public debt (debt that is subject to a statutory limit), and debt held by the public.

Section 1102. Major Functional Categories. This section breaks down the levels of new budget authority and outlays for fiscal years 2021 through 2030 by each of the 20 major functional categories, based on allocations of the total levels set in section 1101.

Section 1201. Social Security in the Senate. This section provides the amounts of Social Security revenues and outlays, and Social Security administrative budget authority and outlays, for the purpose of enforcement in the Senate. This is a requirement pursuant to the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Section 1202. Postal Service Discretionary Administrative Expenses in the Senate. This section provides amounts of new budget authority and budget outlays for the Postal Service’s discretionary administrative expenses for the purpose of enforcement in the Senate.

Section 2001. Reconciliation in the House of Representatives. This section provides reconciliation instructions to 12 committees to submit changes in laws within their jurisdictions that will increase the deficit over the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030 by no more than the amount specified for each committee. Because of overlapping committee jurisdictions in the House, the separate reconciliation instructions add up to more than $1.9 trillion, but the levels in the budget resolution adjust for these double-counts and assume the net effect of changes in laws will not exceed $1.9 trillion. The section also requires committees given reconciliation instructions to submit legislation to the Committee on the Budget by February 16, 2021 to carry out this section.

Section 3001. Reserve Fund for Reconciliation Legislation. This section provides a reserve fund for reconciliation legislation enabling the chair of the House Budget Committee to revise committee allocations and other budgetary levels to accommodate such legislation, provided that it complies with reconciliation instructions under this concurrent resolution. This section also exempts reconciliation legislation reported by the chair of the House Budget Committee from the House pay-as-you-go point of order.

Section 3002. Reserve Fund for Deficit-Neutral Legislation. This section enables the chair of the Committee on the Budget in the House of Representatives to revise committee allocations and other budgetary levels to accommodate legislation, provided such legislation would not increase the deficit over the specified periods.

Section 4001. Enforcement Filing. This section provides for the procedures for filing committee allocations in the House and the Senate in the event a concurrent resolution is adopted without the appointment of a conference committee and the filing of a joint explanatory statement accompanying a conference report. In such a circumstance, the chairs of both the House and Senate Budget Committees shall submit a statement for publication in the Congressional Record establishing committee allocations.

Section 4002. Budgetary Treatment of Administrative Expenses. This section requires a separate allocation to the Committee on Appropriations of the applicable House of Congress for discretionary administrative expenses of the Social Security Administration and the United States Postal Service. This section also clarifies that, for the purposes of enforcing section 302(f) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, estimates of the level of total budget authority and outlays provided by a measure shall include these administrative expenses.

Section 4003. Application and Effect of Changes in Allocations, Aggregates, and other Budgetary Levels. This section establishes the timing of when any adjustments of allocations, aggregates, and other budgetary levels made pursuant to this resolution take effect and stipulates that any adjustment shall be published in the Congressional Record as soon as practicable. It also clarifies that for the purposes of the resolution budgetary levels are determined on the basis of estimates made by the chair of the Committee on the Budget of the applicable House of Congress.

Section 4004. Adjustments to Reflect Changes in Concepts and Definitions. This section gives the chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees the authority to adjust budgetary levels in the concurrent resolution for any changes in budgetary concepts and definitions consistent with the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

Section 4005. Adjustment for Changes in the Baseline. This section gives the chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees the authority to make adjustments to the budgetary levels in the concurrent resolution to reflect changes resulting from the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline updates.

Section 4006. Limitation on Advance Appropriations. This section continues the limitation in the House against legislation making advance appropriations except for certain accounts.

Section 4007. Exercise of Rulemaking Powers. This section instructs that in each of the House and Senate the provisions in this title shall be considered as part of the rules of each House or of that House to which they specifically apply.