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The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 amended the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (the Balanced Budget Act) and the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to add new enforcement procedures for direct (mandatory) spending, receipts, and discretionary spending for fiscal years 1991 through 1995. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 further amended the two acts to apply the new procedures through 1998. The law requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to issue a sequestration preview report five days before the President's budget submission in January or February, a sequestration update report on August IS, and a final sequestration report 10 days after the end of a session of Congress. The sequestration preview report must contain estimates of the following items:

• The discretionary spending limits and any adjustments to them; and
  
  
• The amount by which direct spending or receipt legislation enacted after the Budget Enforcement Act has increased or decreased the deficit and the amount of any required pay-as-you-go sequestration.

This report to the Congress and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provides the required information. In addition to the material presented here, reports in previous years were required to specify the amount of the adjusted maximum deficit for the coming fiscal year. That requirement is no longer in effect because the Budget Enforcement Act specified maximum deficit amounts only through 1995. Thus, there is no maximum deficit amount set by law for fiscal year 1996 or any subsequent year.

This document is available in its entirety in PDF.