Description:
As introduced in the Senate on February 26, 2013
S. 388 would eliminate the automatic spending reductions scheduled to occur under current law for 2013 and would partially eliminate the reductions scheduled for 2014. The bill also would eliminate direct payments to certain agricultural producers, provide funding for agricultural disaster assistance, and exempt from sequestration all mandatory funding provided for the Department of Agriculture.
In addition, S. 388 would ensure that taxpayers with annual income above $5 million face an average tax rate of at least 30 percent on their income, and it would extend an existing per-barrel tax on oil production to oil produced from tar sands.
CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that enacting the bill would increase budget deficits from changes in direct spending and revenues by $7.2 billion over the 2013-2023 period. Because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending and revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures apply.
JCT reviewed the tax provisions of S. 388 and determined that it contains three private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA): (1) the imposition of a minimum tax on taxpayers with high incomes; (2) the denial of a deduction for outsourcing expenses; and (3) the extension of a per-barrel tax to include oil produced from tar sands. JCT’s estimates of the cost of complying with those mandates indicate that the private sector threshold established in UMRA ($150 million in 2013, adjusted annually for inflation) would be exceeded. JCT determined that the tax provisions of S. 388 contain no intergovernmental mandates.
CBO has reviewed the non-tax provisions of the bill and determined that they do not contain intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in UMRA.
