Budget Reform Act of 2025

Key Points

• The bill shifts the federal budget from an annual cycle to a two-year (biennial) cycle. Congress would pass spending bills every other year instead of every year, with the first biennium starting in fiscal year 2028. The second year of each Congress would focus on oversight and authorizing legislation.
• Federal agencies would have to use zero-based budgeting, meaning every dollar of spending must be justified from scratch rather than building on last year's levels. Each activity must present at least three funding options, with at least two below current levels. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are exempt from this requirement.
• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would be required to publicly post all of the data, models, assumptions, and computation details it uses to estimate costs of legislation, in enough detail for outsiders to replicate the results.
• If the president is late submitting the budget, federal funds for travel by top political appointees and the president would be cut off until the budget is delivered. Members of Congress who miss their own budget deadlines would also lose access to federally funded travel.
• The bill raises the Senate vote threshold for waiving budget-related points of order from three-fifths (60 votes) to two-thirds (67 votes), making it significantly harder to bypass budget rules and pass spending that violates established limits.
• The bill changes how the government calculates baseline spending projections by eliminating automatic adjustments for inflation. Future budget baselines would assume current spending levels without any inflation increase, which would effectively make it harder to justify maintaining the same level of services over time.

Votes

No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.