House Passes Bill Requiring Obama to Submit Balanced Budget

The House passed the Require a Plan Act this morning which aims to require the president to submit a balanced budget.

The House passed the Require a Plan Act (HR 444) late this morning by a vote of 253-167.

The legislation reads, “if the President’s fiscal year 2014 budget does not achieve balance in a fiscal year covered by such budget, the President shall submit a supplemental unified budget by April 1, 2013, which identifies a fiscal year in which balance is achieved.”

Speaking on the legislation, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said, “I wish it hadn’t come to this. President Obama has a legal and moral obligation to offer solutions to our fiscal challenges. But so far, he hasn’t. Using the numbers from his last budget proposal, the federal budget wouldn’t have achieved balance—ever. And just this week, he missed the statutory deadline to submit his budget—for the fourth time in five years.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said, “The president’s budget is late again. Senate Democrats haven’t done a budget in nearly four years. And none of them have a plan to replace the ‘sequester.’ That’s why Republicans passed the No Budget, No Pay Act to force Senate Democrats to finally take action.”

Democrats have said the bill is “stupid” because it’s a step towards cutting federal spending, something they said will hurt the economy and job growth.

The House also recently passed the No Budget, No Pay Act which directs both chambers of Congress to adopt a budget resolution for fiscal year 2014 by April 15, 2013.

The last budget proposal from the White House proposed increasing the contribution federal employees make towards retirement by 1.2%.

About the Author

Ian Smith is one of the co-founders of FedSmith.com. He has over 20 years of combined experience in media and government services, having worked at two government contracting firms and an online news and web development company prior to his current role at FedSmith.