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(Updated 10/24/17): The Senate amended this resolution before passing it on October 19th by removing the requirement that tax reform legislation be deficit-neutral and allowing for up to $1.5 trillion in additional tax cuts; increasing defense spending caps; and eliminating the requirement for the House Budget Committee to produce savings under reconciliation. An additional bipartisan amendment eliminated future vote-a-ramas from the budgeting process. The House then passed that version of the budget resolution.

The House-passed version of this resolution would outline a $3.1 trillion budget for fiscal year 2018 and provide reconciliation instructions for the House Ways and Means Committee to produce deficit-neutral tax reform legislation, and other committees to produce legislation reducing deficits by $203 billion over a 10-year period. Budget levels for future fiscal years would be set to shrink the deficit over time and bring the budget into balance by 2027.

Federal spending for fiscal year 2018 would be set at $3.16 trillion, while tax revenue to the government would be $2.67 trillion, resulting in a deficit exceeding $494 billion. In future years the deficit is set to shrink over time to $359 billion in 2021 and $144 billion in 2025, before the budget balances and a surplus of about $4.9 billion is achieved in 2027.

The resolution would give reconciliation instructions to 11 House committees to produce legislation reducing the deficit by $203 billion over the 10 year budget window by October 6, 2017. The largest reductions would come from the Ways and Means Committee ($52 billion), the Judiciary Committee ($45 billion), and $20 billion each from the Education & Workforce Committee and the Energy & Commerce Committee.

The resolution would also reserve funds to be used for commercializing the air traffic control system, investing in national infrastructure, providing for tax reform, funding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and repealing and replacing Obamacare.

As a concurrent resolution, this legislation can’t become law so it wouldn’t go to the president’s desk for a signature. It's essentially Congress expressing its views on a policy matter - in this case on the budget, tax reform, Obamacare, and other programs. It doesn’t authorize any actual spending, instead it simply lays out budget levels that appropriators will have to work within.

","official_title":"Establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2018 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2019 through 2027.","short_title":null,"popular_title":null,"short_summary":"(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the Senate on October 19, 2017. The summary of that version is repeated here.)\n\nHighlights: \n\nThis concurrent resolution establishes the FY2018 congressional budget resolution, which provides a framework for congressional consideration of legislation addressing revenues, spending, and other budget-related issues. 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The GOP Budget for Fiscal Year 2018 and Using Reconciliation for Tax Reform and Deficit Reduction