SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1. Adoption of the Rules of the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress.
This section provides that the Rules of the 117th Congress are the Rules of the 118th Congress, except for the amendments contained in section 2 of the resolution and orders contained in the resolution.
Section 2. Changes to the Standing Rules.
Initiatives to Reduce Spending and Improve Accountability.
Subsection (a)(1) replaces current “pay-as-you-go” requirements with “cut-as-you-go” requirements. The provision prohibits consideration of a bill, joint resolution, conference report, or amendment that has the net effect of increasing mandatory spending within a five-year or ten-year budget window. This provision continues the current practice of counting multiple measures considered pursuant to a special order of business which directs the Clerk to engross the measures together after passage for purposes of compliance with the rule and provides a mechanism for addressing “emergency” designations.
Subsection (a)(2) strikes the “Gephardt rule” that provides for the automatic engrossment and transmittal to the Senate of a joint resolution changing the public debt limit, upon the adoption by the House of a concurrent resolution on the budget resolution, thereby avoiding a separate vote in the House on the public debt limit legislation.
Subsection (a)(3) restores a point of order against net increase in budget authority for amendments to general appropriations bills.
Subsection (a)(4) restores a point of order against budget reconciliation directives that increase net direct spending.
Increased Threshold for Tax Rate Increases. Subsection (b) restores a requirement for a three-fifths supermajority vote on tax rate increases.
Increased Threshold for Tax Rate Increases. Subsection (b) restores a requirement for a three-fifths supermajority vote on tax rate increases.
NOTE: …and IF you believe that this is the end of this nonsense – then you have another thing(s) coming. ~ Editor