Establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2003 and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for each of fiscal years 2004 through 2007.
Key claim: The House budget resolution would set Congress’s overall revenue, spending, deficit, and debt targets for fiscal 2003 through 2007, earmark homeland-security amounts for 2003, and create reserve funds for the war on terrorism, Medicare modernization and prescription-drug coverage, IDEA special-education grants, and highway spending, with extra surpluses reserved for debt reduction.
Abstract
(HCONRES353 · 107th Congress) Sets forth the congressional budget for the Government for FY 2003, including the appropriate budgetary levels for FY 2004 through 2007. Title I: Recommended Levels and Amounts - Lists recommended budgetary levels and amounts, for FY 2003 through 2007, with respect to: (1) Federal revenues; (2) new budget authority; (3) budget outlays; (4) on-budget deficits; (5) public debt; and (6) debt held by the public. (Sec. 102) Sets forth the appropriate levels of new budget authority and outlays for homeland security for FY 2003. (Sec. 103) Lists the appropriate levels of new budget authority and outlays for specified major functional categories for FY 2003 through 2007. Title II: Reserve and Contingency Funds - Subtitle A: Reserve Funds for Legislation Assumed in Aggregates - Creates a reserve fund for the war on terrorism that requires the Chairman of the House Budget Committee to adjust the allocation of budget authority to the Committee on Appropriations or the Committee on Armed Services for any measure that provides funding for such war for FY 2003, up to a specified level. (Sec. 202) Establishes reserve funds for: (1) medicare modernization, prescription drug coverage, and adjustments to the medicare program on a fee-for-service, capitated, or other basis for FY 2003 through 2012; (2) special education (grants to States under part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) for FY 2003 and for FY 2004 through 2007 (contingent upon reauthorization); and (3) the obligation limitation for FY 2003 for programs, projects, and activities within the highway category of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. Authorizes the chairman of the House Budget Committee to revise applicable allocations in new budget authority and/or outlays for such funds, up to specified levels and subject to certain conditions, in response to subsequent House or conference committee action. Subtitle B: Additional Surpluses Reserved for Debt Reduction - Establishes Latest action (2002-03-21): Received in the Senate and referred to the Committee on the Budget.
Why this matters
Congressional budget resolutions set the annual ceilings and reserve funds that shape how much DOT and related transportation programs — including the Federal-aid highway obligation limitation — can actually spend, even when underlying authorizations exist. The FY2003 resolution specifically flagged highway spending as a reserve-fund category alongside homeland security and Medicare, signaling Congress’s intent to protect trust-fund-supported infrastructure obligations within the broader budget aggregates. Because it is a concurrent resolution rather than law, its practical effect depends on subsequent appropriations and authorizing action.