To provide that no automatic pay adjustment for Members of Congress shall be made in the year following a fiscal year in which there is a Federal budget deficit.

January 4, 2005

Mr. STEARNS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

To provide that no automatic pay adjustment for Members of Congress shall be made in the year following a fiscal year in which there is a Federal budget deficit.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Deficit Accountability Act of 2005'.

SEC. 2. EFFECT OF A BUDGET DEFICIT.

Section 601(a) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31) is amended--

(1) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking `Subject to subparagraph (B),' and inserting `Subject to subparagraph (B) and paragraph (3),'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

`(3) An adjustment under paragraph (2) otherwise scheduled to take effect in a calendar year shall not be made if, as determined by the Office of Management and Budget, there was a deficit (as defined by section 3 of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974) in the preceding fiscal year.'.

END