(a) Timetable

The timetable with respect to this subchapter for any budget year is as follows:

Date: Action to be completed:
January 21 Notification regarding optional adjustment of maximum deficit amount.
5 days before the President’s budget submission CBO sequestration preview report.
The President’s budget submission OMB sequestration preview report.
August 10 Notification regarding military personnel.
August 15 CBO sequestration update report.
August 20 OMB sequestration update report.
10 days after end of session CBO final sequestration report.
15 days after end of session OMB final sequestration report; Presidential order.

(b) Submission and availability of reports

Terms Used In 2 USC 904

  • account: means an item for which appropriations are made in any appropriation Act and, for items not provided for in appropriation Acts, such term means an item for which there is a designated budget account identification code number in the President's budget. See 2 USC 900
  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
  • baseline: means the projection (described in section 907 of this title) of current-year levels of new budget authority, outlays, receipts, and the surplus or deficit into the budget year and the outyears. See 2 USC 900
  • breach: means , for any fiscal year, the amount (if any) by which new budget authority or outlays for that year (within a category of discretionary appropriations) is above that category's discretionary spending limit for new budget authority or outlays for that year, as the case may be. See 2 USC 900
  • Budget authority: Authority provided by law to enter into obligations that will result in outlays of Federal funds. Budget authority may be classified by the period of availability (one-year, multiyear, no-year), by the timing of congressional action (current or permanent), or by the manner of determining the amount available (definite or indefinite).
  • budget year: means , with respect to a session of Congress, the fiscal year of the Government that starts on October 1 of the calendar year in which that session begins. See 2 USC 900
  • budgetary resources: means new budget authority, unobligated balances, direct spending authority, and obligation limitations. See 2 USC 900
  • category: means the subsets of discretionary appropriations in section 901(c) of this title. See 2 USC 900
  • CBO: means the Director of the Congressional Budget Office. See 2 USC 900
  • current: means , with respect to OMB estimates included with a budget submission under section 1105(a) of title 31, the estimates consistent with the economic and technical assumptions underlying that budget and with respect to estimates made after that budget submission that are not included with it, estimates consistent with the economic and technical assumptions underlying the most recently submitted President's budget. See 2 USC 900
  • current year: means , with respect to a budget year, the fiscal year that immediately precedes that budget year. See 2 USC 900
  • direct spending: means &mdash. See 2 USC 900
  • Discretionary spending: Spending (budget authority and outlays)controlled in annual appropriations acts.
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • OMB: means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. See 2 USC 900
  • Outlays: Outlays are payments made (generally through the issuance of checks or disbursement of cash) to liquidate obligations. Outlays during a fiscal year may be for payment of obligations incurred in prior years or in the same year.
  • outyear: means a fiscal year one or more years after the budget year. See 2 USC 900
  • sequestration: refer to or mean the cancellation of budgetary resources provided by discretionary appropriations or direct spending law. See 2 USC 900

Each report required by this section shall be submitted, in the case of CBO, to the House of Representatives, the Senate and OMB and, in the case of OMB, to the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President on the day it is issued. On the following day a notice of the report shall be printed in the Federal Register.

(c) Sequestration preview reports

(1) Reporting requirement

On the dates specified in subsection (a), OMB and CBO shall issue a preview report regarding discretionary, pay-as-you-go, and deficit sequestration based on laws enacted through those dates.

(2) Discretionary sequestration report

The preview reports shall set forth estimates for the current year and each subsequent year through 2025 of the applicable discretionary spending limits for each category and an explanation of any adjustments in such limits under section 901 of this title.

(3) Pay-as-you-go sequestration reports

The preview reports shall set forth, for the current year and the budget year, estimates for each of the following:

(A) The amount of net deficit increase or decrease, if any, calculated under section 902(b) of this title.

(B) A list identifying each law enacted and sequestration implemented after November 5, 1990, included in the calculation of the amount of deficit increase or decrease and specifying the budgetary effect of each such law.

(C) The sequestration percentage or (if the required sequestration percentage is greater than the maximum allowable percentage for medicare) percentages necessary to eliminate a deficit increase under section 902(c) of this title.

(4) Deficit sequestration reports

The preview reports shall set forth for the budget year estimates for each of the following:

(A) The maximum deficit amount, the estimated deficit calculated under section 903(b) of this title, the excess deficit, and the margin.

(B) The amount of reductions required under section 902 of this title, the excess deficit remaining after those reductions have been made, and the amount of reductions required from defense accounts and the reductions required from non-defense accounts.

(C) The sequestration percentage necessary to achieve the required reduction in defense accounts under section 903(d) of this title.

(D) The reductions required under sections 903(e)(1) and 903(e)(2) of this title.

(E) The sequestration percentage necessary to achieve the required reduction in non-defense accounts under section 903(e)(3) of this title.


The CBO report need not set forth the items other than the maximum deficit amount for fiscal year 1992, 1993, or any fiscal year for which the President notifies the House of Representatives and the Senate that he will adjust the maximum deficit amount under the option under section 903(g)(1)(B) of this title.

(5) Explanation of differences

The OMB reports shall explain the differences between OMB and CBO estimates for each item set forth in this subsection.

(d) Notification regarding military personnel

On or before the date specified in subsection (a), the President shall notify the Congress of the manner in which he intends to exercise flexibility with respect to military personnel accounts under section 905(f) of this title.

(e) Sequestration update reports

On the dates specified in subsection (a), OMB and CBO shall issue a sequestration update report, reflecting laws enacted through those dates, containing all of the information required in the sequestration preview reports. This report shall also contain a preview estimate of the adjustment for disaster funding for the upcoming fiscal year.

(f) Final sequestration reports

(1) Reporting requirement

On the dates specified in subsection (a), OMB and CBO shall issue a final sequestration report, updated to reflect laws enacted through those dates.

(2) Discretionary sequestration reports

The final reports shall set forth estimates for each of the following:

(A) For the current year and each subsequent year through 2025 the applicable discretionary spending limits for each category and an explanation of any adjustments in such limits under section 901 of this title, including a final estimate of the adjustment for disaster funding.

(B) For the current year and the budget year the estimated new budget authority and outlays for each category and the breach, if any, in each category.

(C) For each category for which a sequestration is required, the sequestration percentages necessary to achieve the required reduction.

(D) For the budget year, for each account to be sequestered, estimates of the baseline level of sequestrable budgetary resources and resulting outlays and the amount of budgetary resources to be sequestered and resulting outlay reductions.

(3) Pay-as-you-go and deficit sequestration reports

The final reports shall contain all the information required in the pay-as-you-go and deficit sequestration preview reports. In addition, these reports shall contain, for the budget year, for each account to be sequestered, estimates of the baseline level of sequestrable budgetary resources and resulting outlays and the amount of budgetary resources to be sequestered and resulting outlay reductions. The reports shall also contain estimates of the effects on outlays of the sequestration in each outyear for direct spending programs.

(4) Explanation of differences

The OMB report shall explain any differences between OMB and CBO estimates of the amount of any net deficit change calculated under section 902(b) of this title, any excess deficit, any breach, and any required sequestration percentage. The OMB report shall also explain differences in the amount of sequesterable 1 resources for any budget account to be reduced if such difference is greater than $5,000,000.

(5) Presidential order

On the date specified in subsection (a), if in its final sequestration report OMB estimates that any sequestration is required, the President shall issue an order fully implementing without change all sequestrations required by the OMB calculations set forth in that report. This order shall be effective on issuance.

(g) Within-session sequestration reports and order

If an appropriation for a fiscal year in progress is enacted (after Congress adjourns to end the session for that budget year and before July 1 of that fiscal year) that causes a breach, 10 days later CBO shall issue a report containing the information required in paragraph (f)(2). Fifteen days after enactment, OMB shall issue a report containing the information required in paragraphs (f)(2) and (f)(4). On the same day as the OMB report, the President shall issue an order fully implementing without change all sequestrations required by the OMB calculations set forth in that report. This order shall be effective on issuance.

(h) GAO compliance report

Upon request of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives or the Senate, the Comptroller General shall submit to the Congress and the President a report on—

(1) the extent to which each order issued by the President under this section complies with all of the requirements contained in this subchapter, either certifying that the order fully and accurately complies with such requirements or indicating the respects in which it does not; and

(2) the extent to which each report issued by OMB or CBO under this section complies with all of the requirements contained in this subchapter, either certifying that the report fully and accurately complies with such requirements or indicating the respects in which it does not.

(i) Low-growth report

At any time, CBO shall notify the Congress if—

(1) during the period consisting of the quarter during which such notification is given, the quarter preceding such notification, and the 4 quarters following such notification, CBO or OMB has determined that real economic growth is projected or estimated to be less than zero with respect to each of any 2 consecutive quarters within such period; or

(2) the most recent of the Department of Commerce’s advance preliminary or final reports of actual real economic growth indicate that the rate of real economic growth for each of the most recently reported quarter and the immediately preceding quarter is less than one percent.

(j) Economic and technical assumptions

In all reports required by this section, OMB shall use the same economic and technical assumptions as used in the most recent budget submitted by the President under section 1105(a) of title 31.

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