APPENDIX A Scorekeeping Guidelines The guidelines listed below reflect general budget scorekeeping conventions used by the House and Senate Budget Committees and the Office of Management and Budget in measuring compliance with Congressional budget targets and the Budget Summit Agreement. To the extent possible under the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget follow these guidelines in calculating deficit estimates and making projections for the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. Final scoring depends on the review of legislation by the scorekeepers, as provided in the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 and the Congressional Budget Act. These rules will be reviewed on an annual basis. 1. Mandatory spending.--The list of accounts that are considered mandatory for purposes of scoring appropriations bills is included in the conference report of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA), House Report 101-964, pp. 1176-1180. 2. Outlays prior.--Outlays from prior-year appropriations will be classified consistent with the discretionary/mandatory classification of the account from which the outlays occur. 3. Direct spending programs.--Entitlements and other mandatory programs (including offsetting receipts) will be scored at current law levels, unless Congressional action modifies the authorizing legislation. Substantive changes to or restrictions on entitlement law or other mandatory spending law in appropriations bills will be scored against the Appropriations Committee section 302(b) allocations in the House and the Senate except for those savings provisions that are to be enacted by an authorizing committee pursuant to the Budget Summit Agreement. 4. Transfer of budget authority from a mandatory account to a discretionary account.--The transfer of budget authority to a discretionary account will be scored as an increase in discretionary budget authority and outlays in the gaining account. The losing account will not show an offsetting reduction if the account is an entitlement or mandatory. 5. Permissive transfer authority.--Permissive transfers will be assumed to occur (in full or in part) unless sufficient evidence exists to the contrary. Outlays from such transfers will be estimated based on the best information available, primarily historical experience and, where applicable, indications of Executive or Congressional intent. This guideline will apply to specific transfers (transfers where the gaining and losing accounts and the amounts subject to transfer can be ascertained) for FY 1991 and to both specific and general transfer authority thereafter. 6. Reappropriations.--Reappropriations of expiring balances of budget authority will be scored as new budget authority in the fiscal year in which the balances become newly available. 7. Advance appropriations.--Advance appropriations of budget authority will be scored as new budget authority in the fiscal year in which the funds become newly available for obligation, not when the appropriations are enacted. Advance appropriations will be classified as mandatory or discretionary consistent with the mandatory list included in the conference report of the OBRA (see rule no. 1, above). 8. Rescissions and transfers of unobligated balances.--Rescissions of unobligated balances will be scored as reductions in current budget authority and outlays in the year the money is rescinded. Transfers of unobligated balances will be scored as reductions in current budget authority and outlays in the account from which the funds are being transferred, and as increases in budget authority and outlays in the account to which these funds are being transferred. In certain instances, these transactions will result in a net negative budget authority amount in the source accounts. Such amounts of budget authority will be projected at zero. Outlay estimates for both the transferring and receiving accounts will be based on the spending patterns appropriate to the respective accounts. 9. Delay of obligations.--Appropriations bills specify a date when funds will become available for obligation. It is this date that determines the year for which new budget authority is scored. In the absence of such a date, the bill is assumed to be effective upon enactment. If a new appropriation provides that a portion of the budget authority shall not be available for obligation until a future fiscal year, that portion shall be treated as an advance appropriation of budget authority. If a law defers existing budget authority (or unobligated balances) from a year in which it was available for obligation to a year in which it was not available for obligation, that law shall be scored as a rescission in the current year and a reappropriation in the year in which obligational authority is extended. If the authority to obligate is contingent upon the enactment of a subsequent appropriation, new budget authority and outlays will be scored with the subsequent appropriation. If an appropriation is contingent on enactment of a subsequent authorization, new budget authority and outlays will be scored with the appropriation. If an appropriation is contingent on the fulfillment of some action by the Executive branch or some other event normally estimated, new budget authority will be scored with the appropriation, and outlays will be estimated based on the best information about when (or if) the contingency will be met. Non-lawmaking contingencies within the control of the Congress are not scoreable events. 10. Absorption--Appropriations bills or reports should contain language that clearly specifies the extent to which funds for pay raises are either provided or absorbed within the levels appropriated in the bill, or remain to be provided. 11. Scoring purchases, lease-purchases, and leases. General Rule.--When a bill provides the authority for an agency to enter into a contract for the purchase, lease-purchase, or lease of a capital asset, budget authority will be scored in the year in which the budget authority is first made available in the amount of the government's total estimated legal obligations. Outlays for a purchase or for a lease-purchase in which the Federal government assumes substantial risk--for example, through an explicit government guarantee of third party financing--will be spread across the period during which the contractor constructs, manufactures, or purchases the asset. Outlays for a lease, or for a lease-purchase in which the private sector retains substantial risk, will be spread across the lease period. In all cases, the total amount of outlays scored over time against a bill will equal the amount of budget authority scored against that bill. Implementation of the rule.--Contracts under existing authority will not be rescored. Purchases and lease-purchases will be scored on the basis of this rule starting in FY 1991. Multi-year leases will be scored consistent with current practice, rather than this rule, in FY 1991. Further details.--See below, "Addendum: Details on scoring purchases, lease-purchases, and leases." 12. Write-offs of uncashed checks, unredeemed food stamps, and similar instruments.--Exceptional write-offs of uncashed checks, unredeemed food stamps, and similar instruments (i.e., write-offs of cumulative balances that have built up over several years or have been on the books for several years) shall be scored as an adjustment to the means of financing the deficit rather than as an offset. An estimate of write-offs or similar adjustments that are part of a continuing routine process shall be netted against outlays in the year in which the write-off will occur. Such write-offs shall be recorded in the account in which the outlay was originally recorded. 13. Reclassification after an agreement--Except to the extent assumed in a budget agreement, a law that has the effect of altering the classification of spending and revenues (e.g., from discretionary to mandatory, special fund to revolving fund, on-budget to off-budget, revenue to offsetting receipt), will not be scored as reclassified for the purpose of enforcing a budget agreement. Addendum: Details on Scoring Purchases, Lease-Purchase and Leases Budget authority.--Budget authority scored against a bill will include all costs of the project except for imputed interest costs calculated at Treasury rates. Imputed interest costs will not be scored against a bill or for current level but will count for other purposes. Criteria for defining a lease.--Under a lease arrangement, ownership of the asset remains with the lessor during the term of the lease and is not transferred to the Government at or shortly after the end of the lease period. In addition, the Government should enter into the contract for limited use of an asset and not consume a substantial portion (75 percent) of its economic value. All risks of ownership of the asset (e.g., financial responsibility for the destruction or loss of the asset) should remain with the lessor. Illustrative criteria determining private risk.--Legislation and lease-purchase contracts will be considered against the following type of illustrative criteria to evaluate the level of private-sector risk in a project: --There should be no explicit government guarantee of third party financing. --All risks of ownership of the asset (e.g., financial responsibility for destruction or loss of the asset, etc.) should remain with the lessor unless the Government was at fault for such losses. --The asset should be a general purpose asset rather than for a special purpose of the Government and should not be built to unique specification for the Government as lessee. There should be a private-sector market for the asset. --The project should not be constructed on Government land. Directed scorekeeping.--Language that attempts to waive the Anti-Deficiency Act, or to limit the amount or timing of obligations recorded, does not change the government's obligations or obligational authority, and so will not affect the scoring of budget authority or outlays. Authority to obligate.--Unless bill language that authorizes a project clearly states that no obligations are allowed unless budget authority is provided specifically for that project in an appropriations bill in advance of the obligation, the bill will be interpreted as providing obligation authority, in an amount to be estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (for the Congress) and the Office of Management and Budget (for the Executive).