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November 16,1987

Honorable James C. Miller III
Director
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, D.C. 20503

Dear Mr. Miller:

In accordance with the new procedures of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987, Public Law 100-119, I herewith transmit to you my revised sequestration report for fiscal year 1988.

The purpose of this report is to indicate whether and to what extent, as a result of laws enacted and regulations promulgated since October 10, 1987, the Congressional Budget Office estimates for the budget baseline deficit for 1988 and the required amount of outlay reductions have changed from my initial sequestration report. This report is based on the same economic and technical assumptions, employs the same methodologies, and uses the same definition of the budget baselines and the same criteria and guidelines as those used for my initial sequestration report.

As of the close of business November 13, 1987, our estimate of the baseline deficit for 1988 is $179.9 billion. This is $0.6 billion higher than our estimate as of October 10, 1987, as a result of the enactment of Public Law 100-136. This legislation requires that certain veterans housing loans be sold with recourse to the federal government. Under our scoring conventions, the receipts from such sales are not counted as offsetting collections, which raises our baseline outlay estimates for the Veterans Administration.

The increase in our estimate of the baseline deficit does not change the required amount of outlay reductions to be obtained through sequestration, which by law is limited to $23 billion for 1988. Accordingly, the sequestration calculations required for this revised report, with certain minor exceptions, are identical to those contained in my initial report. These calculations were printed in the Federal Register of October 16, 1987 (Vol. 52, No. 200, Part VI, pages 38682-38737) and are submitted again by reference to this earlier report, with certain changes as set forth in Attachment A to this letter.

With best wishes,

Sincerely yours,

Edward M. Gramlich
Acting Director
 

Enclosure
 

In a few instances, the amounts shown in the appendix to CBO's October 15 report were incorrect. Listed below are the initial and revised sequestration calculations for the affected accounts.