Description:
As amended and posted on the website of the House Committee on Rules on December 2, 2014
The legislation would prohibit the executive branch from exempting or deferring from removal certain categories of aliens considered to be unlawfully present in the United States. It also would prohibit the executive branch from treating those people as if they were lawfully present or had lawful immigration status, or providing those people with the authorization to work legally.
CBO and JCT expect that enacting the proposed amendment in the nature of a substitute for H.R. 5759 would reduce both revenues and outlays for direct spending programs. However, because of the short time available since the President announced his action, CBO and JCT cannot provide a specific estimate of those effects at this time. Moreover, because the effects on revenues and outlays would be at least partially offsetting, CBO and JCT cannot currently determine whether the legislation would increase or decrease federal budget deficits over the next 10 years. (The legislation could also have effects on spending subject to appropriation, but CBO cannot determine the extent or direction of those effects on discretionary spending.)
Effects on Direct Spending
Under the bill, participation in several programs would decline because some people would no longer be eligible to participate or because they would choose not to participate for fear of revealing their unlawful presence. CBO and JCT expect that spending for the following programs would be reduced if the legislation was enacted:
Effects on Revenues
The proposed amendment in the nature of a substitute for H.R. 5759 would affect tax revenues in a number of ways, some of which would decrease receipts and some of which would increase them. After accounting for all of the effects, JCT expects that enacting the legislation would reduce tax revenues.
JCT expects that the legislation would result in reduced reporting of employment income by people who, under the President’s executive order, will be treated as lawfully present or authorized to work. That decrease in reported wages would cause decreases in receipts from both individual income taxes and payroll taxes.
