To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to provide for the expedited consideration of certain proposed rescissions of budget authority and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill revives a form of presidential line-item veto by amending the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. It replaces the existing rescission and deferral framework (parts B and C of Title X) with a new 'Legislative Line-Item Veto' procedure. Under this system, the President may propose cancellation of specific dollar amounts of discretionary budget authority, items of direct spending, or targeted tax benefits within 30 days of signing any spending bill. The President sends a special message to Congress detailing each proposed cancellation. Congress then must introduce and vote on an 'approval bill' under expedited procedures -- limited debate, no amendments, and strict timelines. The President may temporarily defer or suspend the proposed items for up to 30 days (extendable once) while Congress acts. Cancelled amounts must be dedicated to deficit reduction. The authority expires October 1, 2031.
Who Benefits and How
- The President gains significant new leverage over federal spending by being able to surgically target individual spending items, direct spending provisions, and narrow tax benefits for cancellation, subject only to an expedited up-or-down congressional vote.
- Fiscal hawks and deficit reduction advocates benefit because all cancelled amounts must be dedicated to deficit reduction or surplus increase, with OMB required to adjust statutory spending limits.
- Taxpayers broadly may benefit if the mechanism successfully eliminates wasteful spending or narrowly targeted tax benefits that serve a single beneficiary.
- The Comptroller General gains an oversight role, issuing reports on whether the President has properly released deferred funds after the deferral period expires.
Who Bears the Burden and How
- Congress loses significant control over the power of the purse. The expedited procedures -- no amendments allowed, strict debate limits, compressed timelines -- pressure Congress into binary yes/no votes on presidential cancellation proposals with limited deliberation.
- Recipients of targeted tax benefits (single-beneficiary tax deductions, credits, exclusions, or preferences) face risk that these provisions could be singled out and cancelled after a bill is already signed into law.
- Agencies and programs that receive discretionary appropriations face uncertainty because the President can defer obligations for up to 60 days while cancellation is pending, even if Congress ultimately rejects the cancellation.
- State and local governments and other entities relying on direct spending items face the risk of temporary suspension and potential cancellation of funding they expected to receive.
Key Provisions
- President may propose cancellation of discretionary budget authority, direct spending items, or targeted tax benefits within 30 days of signing a bill
- Each special message must detail the dollar amount, affected account, reasons for cancellation, and estimated fiscal impact
- Limited to 10 special messages per bill (20 for omnibus measures); no duplicate proposals allowed
- Expedited congressional procedures: approval bill introduced within 5 session days, committee report within 7 legislative days, no amendments, 5 hours House debate, 2 hours Senate debate
- President may temporarily defer discretionary budget authority or suspend direct spending/tax benefits for up to 30 days (extendable once to 60 days) while Congress considers the proposal
- Cancellations take effect only upon enactment of the approval bill; if not enacted, the original spending remains in effect
- 'Targeted tax benefit' defined as any revenue-losing provision benefiting only a single beneficiary under the Internal Revenue Code
- All savings dedicated to deficit reduction; Budget Committee chairs must adjust budget resolution levels
- Authority expires October 1, 2031
- Sense of Congress that no President should condition cancellation proposals on Members' votes
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Establishes a legislative line-item veto procedure allowing the President to propose cancellation of specific discretionary budget authority, direct spending items, and targeted tax benefits, subject to expedited congressional approval via up-or-down vote with no amendments.
Key Policy Areas
Government Operations, Federal Budget, Taxation, Congressional Procedure
Primary Purpose
Establishes a legislative line-item veto procedure allowing the President to propose cancellation of specific discretionary budget authority, direct spending items, and targeted tax benefits, subject to expedited congressional approval via up-or-down vote with no amendments.
Policy Domains
Legislative Line-Item Veto Act of 2025
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- The President (gains targeted spending cancellation power)
- Deficit reduction advocates (all savings dedicated to deficit reduction)
- Taxpayers broadly (mechanism to eliminate wasteful earmarks and single-beneficiary tax breaks)
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Congress (constrained by expedited procedures, no-amendment rule)
- Recipients of targeted tax benefits (exposed to post-enactment cancellation)
- Federal agencies (discretionary budgets subject to temporary deferral)
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Burchett introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Impact analysis is available but no clear stakeholder effects identified. View clause-level analysis →
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "cbo"
- → Director of the Congressional Budget Office
- "omb"
- → Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- "the_chairmen"
- → Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means (House) and Chairman of the Committee on Finance (Senate), acting jointly
- "the_president"
- → President of the United States
- "the_comptroller_general"
- → Comptroller General of the United States
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Section 1017 defines 11 terms including: 'approval bill' (a bill that only approves presidential cancellation proposals in prescribed format), 'cancel/cancellation' (preventing budget authority or tax benefit from having legal force), 'direct spending' (budget authority other than appropriations, entitlement authority, and SNAP), 'dollar amount of discretionary budget authority' (amount specified in appropriation law or related documents), 'item of direct spending' (provision increasing budget authority/outlays relative to baseline), and 'targeted tax benefit' (revenue-losing provision benefiting only one beneficiary under IRC).
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology