US House of Representatives: To provide for a responsible increase to the debt ceiling., Kartoniert / Broschiert

Blurb

In the spring of 2023 the United States bumped against the legal ceiling on how much it could borrow, and for the first time the prospect of a default on the obligations of the federal government, something that had never happened in the nation's history, loomed as a real possibility. The bargain that averted it is reproduced here in its own words. To provide for a responsible increase to the debt ceiling presents the legislative text of H. R. 3746, 118th Congress, the introduced House version dated May 29, 2023, that became known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. This is the working legal instrument itself, not a summary or a commentary, the document by which Congress simultaneously suspended the statutory debt limit and imposed a package of spending restraints and policy changes.

Few texts so plainly reveal how modern American fiscal policy is actually made: not as a single coherent budget but as a bundle of bargains struck under deadline pressure. Introduced by Mr. McHenry and referred to a long roster of committees, from Ways and Means to Budget, Appropriations, Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Homeland Security, the bill is built as four largely self-contained divisions, with Section 3 specifying that a reference to this Act within any division means only that division's provisions, letting the four parts operate almost as separate statutes under one short title. The structure makes the deal visible on the page: borrowing authority and fiscal discipline travel together in a single vehicle.

The provisions are precise. Division A, Limit Federal Spending, writes hard discretionary caps into the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, down to the dollar, $886, 349, 000, 000 for the FY2024 security category and $703, 651, 000, 000 for nonsecurity. Division B, Save Taxpayer Dollars, rescinds scores of unobligated balances, claws back funds made available to the IRS, establishes a statutory Administrative Pay-As-You-Go regime administered by OMB, and ends the pandemic-era suspension of student-loan payments. Division C, Grow the Economy, revises work rules under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and advances permitting reform, including a Section 324 that directs completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline by name, ratifying its federal authorizations and channeling all legal challenges to the D. C. Circuit. Division D states the central bargain in a single section, suspending the public-debt limit through January 1, 2025, then resetting it upward.

This Nimble Books edition faithfully reproduces the legislative text and surrounds it with a full editorial apparatus newly prepared for this volume. A Historical Context essay reconstructs the 2023 debt-limit crisis, explains how the bill is built division by division, and shows why the Mountain Valley Pipeline section repays close reading as an example of legislating by name. Two complementary plain-language abstracts open the material to every reader: an accessible explain-it-simply summary and an advanced analytical summary that examines the drafting devices, sunsets, exemption floors, rulemaking clauses, and jurisdiction-stripping language, that determine whether a provision actually binds. A Glossary defines the budget and legislative terminology; Indexes of persons, places, and concepts make the statute navigable; and an original computational RKHS knowledge-graph analysis situates it among related works on federal budgeting and congressional procedure.

For students of Congress, budget process, and administrative law, for scholars, librarians, journalists, and engaged citizens, this edition turns a dense primary source into a readable, fully contextualized record of the law that averted a United States debt default in 2023 and the price that was attached to it.