TRIGGER MECHANISM OF THE GRAMM-RUDMAN-HOLLINGS ACT HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS NINETY-NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JULY 24, 1986 Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Operations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS DON FUQUA, Florida JACK BROOKS, Texas, Chairman JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan STEPHEN L. NEAL, North Carolina ROBERT E. WISE, J., West Virginia JOHN M. SPRATT, JR., South Carolina FRANK HORTON, New York THOMAS N. KINDNESS, Ohio WILLIAM M. JONES, General Counsel ROBERT H. BRINK, Professional Staff Member DONNA L. FOSSUM, Professional Staff Member R. MICHAEL LONG, Professional Staff Member STEPHEN M. DANIELS, Minority Staff Director and Counsel (II) CONTENTS Bowsher, Charles A., Comptroller General of the United States, accompa- nied by Milton J. Socolar, Special Assistant to the Comptroller General, and Harry S. Havens, Assistant Comptroller General... Brooks, Hon. Jack, a Representative in Congress from the State of Texas, and chairman, House Committee on Government Operations: Opening Gray, Hon. William H., III, a Representative in Congress from the State of Pennsylvania, accompanied by Patricia Quealy, chief counsel, Budget Miller, James C., III, Director, Office of Management and Budget.............. Bowsher, Charles A., Comptroller General of the United States: Prepared statement..... Table III-5.-Sequestration percentage reductions under alternative TRIGGER MECHANISM OF GRAMM-RUDMANHOLLINGS ACT THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1986 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m., in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jack Brooks (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Representatives Jack Brooks, John Conyers, Jr., Cardiss Collins, Glenn English, Henry A. Waxman, Ted Weiss, Mike Synar, Stephen L. Neal, Doug Barnard, Jr., Barney Frank, Robert E. Wise, Jr., Barbara Boxer, Sander M. Levin, Edolphus Towns, John M. Spratt, Jr., Joe Kolter, Gerald D. Kleczka, Frank Horton, Thomas N. Kindness, Robert S. Walker, William F. Clinger, Jr., Alfred A. (Al) McCandless, Larry E. Craig, Howard C. Nielson, Patrick L. Swindall, Thomas D. (Tom) DeLay, Joseph J. DioGuardi, Richard K. Armey, Jim Lightfoot, John R. Miller, and Beau Boulter. Also present: William M. Jones, general counsel; Robert Brink and Donna Fossum, professional staff members; Lynne Higginbotham and Marilyn Jarvis, staff members; Stephen M. Daniels, minority staff director and counsel; and Alexander B. Cook, minority professional staff. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN BROOKS Mr. BROOKS. The committee will come to order. Today's hearing has been called to examine the trigger mechanism in the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law. Because of the extreme difficulty of crafting an automatic deficit-cutting mechanism without permanently delegating core congressional responsibilities to the President, controversy has always centered on this portion of the law. The original trigger mechanism required that the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget independently estimate the size of the deficit. It then gave the Comptroller General the power to determine how much each Federal program would have to be cut to meet the deficit target and direct the President to issue a sequestration order making these cuts. Concern over the constitutionality of this mechanism-I said it was unconstitutional the first time they ran it out and tried to beat it in the conference-at any rate, it led to the inclusion of a fallback procedure in the original law, because they even realized that they were doing something that was cockamamie. The fallback procedure |