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1 Final Sequestration Report for Fiscal Year 2019 1 (February 2019)

handle is hein.congrec/cbofseq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~FEBRUARY 2019 Final Sequestration Report for Fiscal Year 2019 In general, after a session of Congress ends, the Congressional Budget Office is required to issue a report that provides estimates of the limits (often called caps) on discretionary budget authority that are in effect for each fiscal year through 2021.1 CBO also must report whether, according to its estimates, enacted legislation for the current fiscal year has exceeded those caps. If so, a sequestration (that is, a cancellation of budgetary resources) would be required. Normally, CBO's final sequestration report would be issued 10 days after the end of a session of Congress. However, because the appropriations for fiscal year 2019 were not final at the end of the second session of the 115th Congress on January 3, 2019, the deadline was extended until 10 days after the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Public Law 116-6), was signed into law on February 15, 2019.2 1. Budget authority is the authority provided by law to incur financial obligations that will result in immediate or future outlays of federal funds. Discretionary budget authority is provided and controlled by annual appropriation acts. 2. Before that deadline was extended by the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 (P.L. 116-5), the House and Senate Committees on the Budget had requested that CBO delay the preparation and release of this report until the agency could fully account for the funding provided in all 12 annual appropriation bills. See Congressional Budget Office, CBO to Delay Release of Sequestration Report, CBO Blog (January 11, 2019), www.cbo.gov/publication/54919. In CBO's estimation, a sequestration will not be required for 2019. However, the authority to determine whether a sequestration is required and, if so, exactly how to make the necessary cuts in budget authority, rests with the Administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Those determinations are based on OMB's own estimates of federal spending. Limits on Discretionary Budget Authority for 2 019 The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (P.L. 115- 123) modified the caps on defense and nondefense funding for fiscal year 2019 that were originally established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-25). P.L. 115-123 reset those limits to total $1,244 billion-$647 billion for defense programs and $597 billion for nondefense programs. By law, however, the caps are adjusted upward when appropriations are provided for certain purposes. Specifically, budget authority that is designated for overseas contingency operations, such as military activities in Afghanistan, or for an emergency requirement leads to an increase in the caps, as does budget authority designated for some types of disaster relief or for certain program integrity initiatives.3 3. Program integrity initiatives seek to identify and reduce overpayments in benefit programs, such as Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Notes: All years referred to are federal fiscal years, which run from October 1 to September 30 and are designated by the calendar year in which they end. Numbers may not sum to totals because of rounding.

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