Federal Budget: Social Spending Targets in the FY 1999 House Budget Resolution

Federal Budget: Social Spending Targets in the FY 1999 House Budget Resolution

98-521 EPW
Updated June 11, 1998
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Federal Budget: Social Spending Targets in the FY
1999 House Budget Resolution
Dawn Nuschler
Analyst in Social Legislation
Education and Public Welfare Division
Each year Congress adopts a concurrent resolution on the budget specifying
aggregate budget totals (revenues, budget authority, outlays, and deficits/surpluses) over
a 5-year period. The congressional budget resolution is a spending plan; it carries no
statutory authority. It provides a framework for the 13 regular appropriations bills
(discretionary spending allocations) and budget reconciliation measures (direct spending
legislation). As required under Section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974,
the resolution provides total spending allocations for the Appropriations Committee
(known as 302(a) allocations) to be divided among the 13 subcommittees (known as
302(b) allocations). The resolution may instruct authorizing committees to submit
legislation making changes to existing law or pending legislation to comply with direct
spending, revenue, and deficit reduction levels outlined by the Budget Committee. These
reconciliation instructions specify which authorizing committee(s) must submit legislation
as well as spending targets and submission deadlines. If more than one authorizing
committee is required to submit legislation, the Budget Committee combines the
measures and reports an omnibus budget reconciliation bill. Differences between the
House and Senate versions of the budget plan must be resolved and final passage given
to the measure in both chambers. The House approved its version of the 1999 budget
resolution (H.Con.Res. 284, amended, H.Rept. 105-555) on June 5, 1998, by a vote of 216
to 204.
This fact sheet will not be updated. A fact sheet on the Senate budget resolution is
available (98-415 EPW), and a fact sheet on the conference agreement will be produced.
In this discussion, all years are fiscal years.
Social Spending Targets. While the Budget Committee report on H.Con.Res. 284
does not provide details on the policy assumptions behind the budget totals, spending
targets for the social program functional categories are presented in Table 1 below. The
resolution contains “sense of Congress” provisions regarding full funding for programs
under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the issuance of only marketable
securities to the Social Security trust funds by the Secretary of the Treasury beginning
FY1999. Reconciliation instructions in the resolution specify direct spending and revenue
targets for nine authorizing committees which are required to report legislation in
compliance with these targets no later than June 26, 1998.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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From 1999-2003, social spending would grow at an estimated average annual rate
of 2.1% in real terms (excluding inflation) compared to an estimated rate of 0.2% for total
outlays. On a unified budget basis (including Social Security), the budget is projected to
run surpluses each year during the period beginning in 1998. When Social Security is
excluded, on-budget deficits remain peaking at $105.6 billion in 2001.
Table 1. Proposed Spending Targets in H.Con.Res. 284
(H.Rept. 105-555 dated May 27, 1998)
(unified budget basis, dollars in billions)
Category
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
Social programs
$1,098.0
$1,144.1
$1,199.6
$1,242.3
$1,309.9
ETESS
60.2
61.3
62.0
61.8
63.9
Health
142.3
149.5
155.6
163.6
172.0
Medicare
210.1
219.8
240.4
246.3
270.4
Income Security
247.6
258.2
267.0
274.5
284.0
Social Security
394.9
412.0
430.9
451.9
474.4
Veterans Benefits
42.9
43.3
43.7
44.2
45.2
Net Interest
244.0
238.2
231.4
224.5
219.1
National Defense
265.5
267.9
269.6
272.1
279.8
Other Nondefense
114.4
117.4
106.7
90.5
101.5
Total outlays
$1,721.9
$1,767.6
$1,807.3
$1,829.4
$1,910.3
Total revenues
$1,755.6
$1,788.8
$1,835.4
$1,906.0
$1,973.7
Unified budget surplus
$33.7
$21.2
$28.1
$76.6
$63.4
On-budget deficit a
-82.9
-104.7
-105.6
-65.6
-88.1
Off-budget surplus b
116.6
125.9
133.7
142.2
151.5
Real growth rates from previous year
Social programs
1.9%
2.4%
1.1%
3.0%
Net Interest
-4.6%
-5.1%
-5.3%
-4.7%
National Defense
-1.4%
-1.7%
-1.4%
0.4%
Other Nondefense c
0.3%
-11.2%
-17.2%
9.5%
Total outlays
0.3%
-0.2%
-1.1%
2.0%
Source: H.Con.Res. 284, H.Rept. 105-555 (May 27, 1998). Real percent change calculated using the
implicit GDP deflator. Detail may not sum to totals due to rounding. Table prepared by CRS.
NOTE: For related information, see CRS Report 98-415, Federal Budget: Social Spending Targets in the
FY1999 Senate Budget Resolution, and CRS Report 98-268, Federal Budget: Social Spending in the
President’s FY1999 Budget, by Dawn Nuschler; and CRS Issue Brief 98012, The Budget for Fiscal Year
1999, by Philip D. Winters. For information on the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates of the effects
of the President’s proposal using its own economic and technical assumptions, see An Analysis of the
President’s Budgetary Proposals for Fiscal Year 1999, March 1998.
Excludes the Social Security trust funds and the Postal Service which are off-budget entities.
a
b Includes the Social Security trust funds and the Postal Service. Off-budget surpluses are due almost
entirely to the Social Security trust funds. In 1997, the Postal Service accounted for less than $500
million of the $81 billion off-budget surplus. Currently, there is a surplus in the Social Security trust
funds because payroll taxes exceed benefit payments and administrative costs. According to
projections in the 1998 Social Security trustees’ report, trust fund outgo will exceed tax income

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beginning in 2013 as the “baby boom” generation begins to retire. Under current law, the balance
in the Social Security trust funds is projected to reach zero in 2032.
The Balanced Budget
c
Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-33) extended the caps on discretionary spending through
2002. As a result, annual growth rates would decline over the period until 2003.