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1 1 (August 2019)

handle is hein.congrec/sequpdt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUGUST 2019 Sequestration Update Report: August 2019 By August 15 of each year, the Congressional Budget Office is required to publish its estimates of the limits (often called caps) on discretionary budget authority that were established under the Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25) and that remain in effect through fiscal year 2021.1 CBO also must report whether, according to its estimates, enacted legislation for the current fiscal year has exceeded the caps and thus would trigger a cancellation of budgetary resources, known as a sequestration. In CBO's estimation, a sequestration will not be required for 2019. However, the authority to make that determi- nation-and, if so, how to cut budget authority-rests with the Administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which reported in March that appropri- ations for 2019 had not exceeded the caps.2 Appropriations made since March have been designated as emergency requirements, thus falling into one of the categories that cannot breach a cap. By law, the caps on discretionary spending are adjusted upward when an appropriation is provided as an emergency requirement or to fund overseas contingency operations (such as mili- tary activities in Afghanistan). The caps also can be raised 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. See Office of Management and Budget, OMB Final Sequestration Report to the President and Congress for Fiscal Year 2019 (March 2019), https://go.usa.gov/xUwaB. to accommodate budget authority provided for disaster relief or for certain program integrity initiatives.3 Limits on Discretionary Budget Authority for 2019 The Budget Control Act has been modified several times to increase the caps on defense (called security in the law) and nondefense (nonsecurity) funding. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-123) set the limits for 2019 at $1,244 billion-$647 billion for defense programs and $597 billion for nondefense programs (see Table 1). Adjustments to those caps for 2019 amount to $116 billion, mostly in the defense category: $69 billion for overseas contingency operations and an estimated $3 billion for emergency requirements.4 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. 4. Emergency supplemental appropriations were enacted in June (P.L. 116-20) and July (P.L. 116-26), after OMB reported the final cap adjustments for 2019. CBO estimates that those two laws will increase the defense cap by a total of $2,838 million and the nondefense cap by $20,869 million. OMB estimated the nondefense appropriations to be $20,874 million, $5 million more than CBO's estimate. See Office of Management and Budget, Budget Enforcement Act (Seven-Day-After) Reports, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security at the Southern Border Act, 2019 (July 11, 2019), and Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act, 2019 (June 17, 2019), https://go.usa.gov/xyhJQ. Note: 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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