On May 10, the House approved the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act (H.R. 5652) to reduce discretionary spending and increase savings from several mandatory programs, by a vote of 218-199. On May 7, the House Budget Committee approved H.R. 5652 and the Budget Sequester Replacement Act (H.R. 4966) in separate votes. The Rules Committee combined the two bills into a single piece of legislation, H.R. 5652.
The measure would avoid the “budget sequester” – automatic cuts to discretionary programs in the amount of $109 billion scheduled to occur in January 2013, as prescribed by the Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25). To cancel $98 billion of the cuts, the House Budget Resolution (H. Con. Res. 112) required that the cap on discretionary spending be reduced by $19 billion to a cap of $1.028 trillion. The resolution also called for six House committees to find additional savings by making changes to mandatory programs in a process called “reconciliation” (see The Source, 4/20/12). H.R. 5652 incorporates the lower cap on discretionary spending and reconciliation provisions, which would reduce spending by $19.7 billion in FY2013 and $315.1 billion over ten years.
The bill would extend the authorization for the Food and Nutrition Act (P.L. 110-246), which authorizes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program). The bill would eliminate automatic eligibility for SNAP for individuals who receive assistance from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Instead, individuals would have to provide proof that they pay heating or cooling expenses in order to qualify for eligibility. Current law allows individuals to qualify automatically for SNAP benefits if they receive LIHEAP assistance.
The measure also would restrict categorical SNAP eligibility to households receiving cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or state cash assistance programs. Currently, households are not subject to SNAP income or asset requirements and states have allowed individuals who receive non-cash TANF benefits to qualify for SNAP benefits.
Increases to SNAP benefits provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (P.L. 111-5) would be terminated as of June 30; grants to states that received funding for various SNAP benefits also would be reduced.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the changes to SNAP would save $7.8 billion in FY2013 and $35.8 billion over ten years.
The measure would repeal the Social Services Block Grant program, which provides grants to states for efforts that achieve the program’s goals: reducing dependency and promoting self-sufficiency; protecting children and adults from neglect, abuse, and exploitation; and providing in-home care to those who would otherwise be unable to stay in their homes. The CBO estimates that the change would produce savings of $1.4 billion in FY2013 and $16.7 billion over ten years.
The bill would require that taxpayers include a social security number in order to claim the refundable child tax credit, thus proving that they are legally able to earn income in the United States, with a projected savings of $7.6 billion over ten years.
The legislation would eliminate funding for programs established in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148 and P.L. 111-152). Specifically, the bill would eliminate funds provided for state insurance exchanges and the Prevention and Public Health Fund, among others. The Joint Committee on Taxation and the CBO estimate that the provisions would produce $43.9 billion and $10.9 billion over ten years, respectively.
