MARCH 26, 2007 BACKGROUNDER:
AMENDMENTS ADOPTED TO THE SENATE BUDGET RESOLUTION

I. Amendments that changed total budget levels:

Baucus amendment No. 492 changed revenue and spending levels in the Budget Resolution to accommodate legislation providing tax relief to middle class families and small businesses and to expand State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) coverage (adopted 97-1).

Bayh / Snowe Amendment No. 526 to adjust totals to enable making the tuition tax credit permanent, the cost of which would be paid for by closing a portion of the “tax gap” through enhanced information reporting requirements (voice vote).

Dole Amendment No. 553 to extend financial relief for our reservists and national guard deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq by allowing them to make penalty-free withdrawals of their retirement funds through the year 2012 (voice vote).

Coleman Amendment No. 522 to extend a provision allowing veterans to qualify for low interest mortgage programs.

II. Amendments that established new budget enforcement mechanisms:

Cornyn amendment No. 84 to provide a budget point of order against legislation that increases income taxes (adopted 63-35).

Bunning / Enzi amendment no. 87 to provide a point of order against any budget resolution that fails to achieve a balanced budget, without using Social Security surpluses, within 5 years (adopted 98-0).

Gregg Amendment No. 622 to provide a point of order against using reconciliation to create new mandatory (entitlement) programs and establishing a 20% limitation on spending reconciliation (voice vote).

Conrad Amendment No. 623 to clarify the procedure when a point of order is raised against conference reports pertaining to emergency legislation or providing advance appropriations (voice vote).

Thune Amendment No. 465 to provide a budget point of order against legislation that increases income tax rates on small businesses, family farms, or family ranches (voice vote).

Gregg / Conrad Amendment No. 638 to create a point of order against increasing mandatory spending in appropriations bills (voice vote).

Voinovich modified Amendment No. 470 to create a point of order against legislation that fails to include a CBO estimate of the cost of debt servicing (voice vote).

DeMint Amendment No. 530 to amend the Social Security point of order so that a point of order would lie against any legislation that would increase non-Social Security deficits until Congress enacts legislation to restore the fiscal solvency of Social Security.

DeMint Amendment No. 534 to prevent the adding of earmarks for spinach producers to an emergency war supplemental appropriations bill (voice vote).

III. Amendments that establish “reserve funds” calling for deficit-neutral initiatives that are contingent on identifying offsetting spending cuts or revenue increases. Reserve funds provide no actual funding.

Collins Amendment No. 480 to establish a reserve fund for extending and increasing above-the-line deduction for teacher classroom supplies (voice vote).

Hutchison modified Amendment No. 517 to provide a deficit-neutral reserve fund for extension of the deduction for state and local sales taxes (voice vote).

Conrad Amendment No. 598 to create a deficit-neutral reserve fund for extending energy tax incentives (adopted 54-42).

Pryor / Nelson Amendment No. 601 to establish a reserve fund to provide additional training for physicians and attract more physicians in States that face a shortage of physicians in training (voice vote).

Bunning Amendment No. 621 to provide for a reserve fund for repeal of the 1993 increase in the income tax on Social Security Benefits (voice vote).

Specter modified Amendment No. 613 to create a deficit-neutral reserve fund for asbestos reform legislation (voice vote).

Levin Amendment No. 632 to provide for a deficit-neutral reserve fund for manufacturing initiatives (voice vote).

Casey Amendment No. 617 to establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund for extending pre-school opportunities to children (voice vote).

Dorgan Amendment No. 544 to provide for a reserve fund for tax relief for enhancing charitable giving from individual retirement accounts (voice vote).

Bingaman Amendment No. 600 to establish a reserve fund to provide for a delay in the implementation of a proposed rule relating to the Federal State financial partnerships under Medicaid and SCHIP (voice vote).

Webb Amendment No. 537 to include in the veterans' reserve fund a provision for the GI educational benefits (voice vote).

Baucus Amendment No. 639 to establish a reserve fund to improve the health care system (voice vote).

Dorgan / Snowe Amendment No. 589 to establish a reserve fund for the safe importation of FDA-approved prescription drugs (voice vote).

Snowe / Rockefeller Amendment No. 629 to provide for a deficit-neutral reserve fund for tax relief for reauthorizing the new markets tax credit for an additional 5 years (voice vote).

Grassley Amendment No. 636 to establish a reserve fund to improve payment accuracy for hospitals under the Medicare program (voice vote).

Enzi Amendment No. 635 to provide a reserve fund to improve health insurance (voice vote).

Carper / Coburn Amendment No. 538 to provide a reserve fund for reduction of improper payments made by agencies (voice vote).

Smith Amendment No. 510 providing that the SCHIP reserve fund could offset increased SCHP spending with an increase in the tobacco products user fee rate, but only to the extent that such rate increase does not result in an increase of more than 61 cents per pack of cigarettes, with all revenue generated by such increase dedicated to the reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP (adopted 59-40).

Reid / Sanders modified Amendment No. 490 to provide a reserve fund to eliminate the offset between military retirement pay and disability compensation for America 's veterans (voice vote).

Kerry / Rockefeller Amendment No. 615 to include in the veterans' reserve fund services for low-vision and blinded veterans.

Nelson (FL) Amendment No. 580 to amend the reserve fund for wounded service members to ensure that Survivor Benefit Plan annuities are not reduced by the amount of veterans' dependency and indemnity compensation received by military families. (voice vote).

Carper / Coburn Amendment No. 540 to establish a reserve fund to reduce the deficit through the use of recovery audits (voice vote).

Grassley Amendment No. 548 to amend the Medicare reserve fund to ensure that Medicare payments to physicians include incentives to improve the quality and efficiency of care furnished to Medicare beneficiaries (voice vote).

Baucus / Rockefeller Amendment No. 504 to amend the SCHIP reserve fund to insert a nonbinding preamble stating that “the Senate shall make the enactment of legislation to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) its top health priority for the first session of the 110 th Congress” (voice vote).

IV. Amendments Pertaining to the Discretionary Spending Caps.

Grassley amendment No. 502 to fence off a small amount of funding for the Smithsonian, to be released only upon GAO reporting to Congress on the appropriate use of certain funds (voice vote).

V. Non-binding amendments recommending to the Appropriations Committee how to allocate funds among the various functions of government. These amendments purport to increase spending for a particular “function” of government, but they have no actual impact since the Appropriations Committee has sole authority to allocate discretionary spending among the various departments, agencies and programs. The sole—and important—function of the Budget Resolution with respect to discretionary spending is to set the total amount of discretionary spending available to the Appropriations Committee.

Bingaman amendment No. 486 to allocate funding for investments in innovation and education in order to improve competitiveness (adopted 97-1).

Lincoln amendment No. 542 to provide the Veterans Benefits Administration with additional resources and staff to more effectively meet their increasing workload and to address claims backlogs (voice vote).

Feinstein / Boxer Amendment No. 574 to provide an additional $43 million for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (voice vote).

Burr Amendment No. 499 to develop biodefense medical countermeasures by fully funding the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) (voice vote).

Biden Amendment No. 528 to increase funding by $100 million for the Violence Against Women Act programs administered by the Dept. of Justice and the Dept. of HHS (voice vote).

Thune Amendment No. 546 to provide for $99 million in COPS Hot Spots funding (voice vote).

Kennedy Amendment No. 602 increasing funding for drug safety oversight at the FDA by $40 million in FY 2008 (voice vote).

Chambliss Amendment No. 619 to provide Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program funding (voice vote).

Graham Amendment No. 614 to increase the budgetary totals for the Department of Commerce to provide additional trade enforcement capability and provide an offset (voice vote).

Biden Amendment No. 529 to increase funding for the COPS Program to $1.15 billion for FY 2008 to provide state and local law enforcement with critical resources (adopted 65-33).

Obama Amendment No. 599 to add $200 million for Function 270 (Energy) for the demonstration and monitoring of carbon capture and sequestration technology by the Department of Energy (voice vote).

Pryor modified Amendment No. 611 to increase the budgeting totals for the National Nanotechnology Initiative for environmental, health and safety research and development for fiscal years 2008 through 2012 (voice vote).

Obama Amendment No. 524 to provide $100 million for the Summer Term Education Program supporting summer learning opportunities for low-income students in the early grades to lessen summer learning losses that contribute to the achievement gaps separating low-income students from their middle-class peers (voice vote).

Reed Amendment No. 596 to increase LIHEAP spending by $703 million in FY 2008 for a total LEHEAP level of $3.2 billion (voice vote).

Pryor / Klobuchar Amendment No. 627 to provide additional funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to enhance its mission of protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from consumer products (voice vote).

Coleman Amendment No. 572 to increase funds for the implementation of the forest management plans developed for the States of Minnesota, Michigan , and Wisconsin (voice vote).

Lieberman / Collins Amendment No. 519 to increase funding for first responder homeland security programs, including $400 million to establish a dedicated interoperability grant program and $331 million for Emergency Management Performance Grants (voice vote).

Brownback Amendment No. 581 to provide funds for a Commission on Budget Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies (voice vote).

Kerry / Snowe Amendment No. 616 to increase funding for small business programs at the Small Business Administration such as micro-loans, Women's Business Centers and Small Business Development Centers (voice vote).

Warner Amendment No. 620 to provide funding for NASA at the FY 2007 levels (voice vote).

Smith Amendment No. 518 to fund the State Dept., USAID, and other foreign affairs agencies and their programs at the level requested by the President (voice vote).

Murkowski / Stevens modified Amendment No. 551 to increase funding for geothermal, ocean (wave, current, tidal) and small hydroelectric energy assistance (voice vote).

Dole Amendment No. 633 to provide the Secretary of Agriculture with the necessary funding to effectively address the critical water and waste water needs of rural communities in the U.S. (voice vote).

Specter Amendment No. 506 to increase funding for NIH, CDC and the health professions (voice vote).