Order on Emergency Deficit Control Measures for Fiscal Year 1986

By the authority vested in me as President by the statutes of the United States of America, including section 252 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (hereafter referred to as "the Act"), I hereby order that the following actions be taken immediately to implement the required sequestration or reduction determined by the Comptroller General in his report dated January 21, 1986, under section 251 of the Act:

(1) Each automatic spending increase which, but for the passage of the Act, would be first paid on or after the enactment of the Act during fiscal year 1986 is suspended as provided in section 252(a)(6) and subject to provisions set forth in sections 255, 256, and 257 of the Act. The programs with such 1986 automatic spending increases subject to reduction in this manner, specified by account title, are: Central Intelligence Agency retirement and disability system fund; Civil service retirement and disability fund; Comptrollers general retirement system; Foreign service retirement and disability fund; Military retirement fund; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration retirement; Railroad Retirement Tier II; Retired pay, Coast Guard; Retirement pay and medical benefits for commissioned Public Health Service officers; Special benefits, Federal Employees' Compensation Act; National Wool Act; Special milk program; and Vocational rehabilitation.

(2) New budget authority and unobligated balances amounts for major National Defense functional category (050) are sequestered according to the procedures set forth in section 252(a)(2) of the Act.

(3) For non-defense accounts in the Federal budget, the following are sequestered: new budget authority, new loan guarantee commitments, new direct loan obligations, and spending authority as defined in section 401(c)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as amended, and the reduction of obligation limitations, for each account and for each program, project, and activity, as defined pursuant to section 252(a)(1)(B)(i) of the Act, or each budget account activity as defined pursuant to section 252(a)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act.

(4) For accounts making payments otherwise required by substantive law, the head of each Department or agency is directed to modify the calculation of each such payment to the extent necessary to reduce the estimate of total required payments for the remainder of the fiscal year (a) where payments are not made from spending authority as defined in section 401(c)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as amended, to the level of remaining budgetary resources or (b) where payments are made from spending authority as defined in section 401(c)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as amended, to the estimated level of payments included in the Comptroller General determination on January 21, 1986, of required sequestration or reduction action.

(5) For accounts making commitments for guaranteed loans and obligations for direct loans subject to limitation otherwise required by substantive law, the head of each Department or agency is directed to modify the calculation of such commitments or obligations to the extent necessary to conform to the limitations established by the Act and specified in the Comptroller General determination of January 21, 1986.

(6) Each Department or agency head may, to the extent not otherwise prohibited by law, use existing authority to deobligate balances of budgetary resources as necessary to apply the required reduction or sequestration in as uniform a manner as possible for any person or other recipient entitled to payments under any formula-driven calculations specified in the substantive law. Deobligations may include budgetary resources obligations for which checks have not been issued or funds not otherwise disbursed (funds obligated but unexpended).

Also, the head of each Department or agency shall report the programs, projects, and activities information required by section 252(a)(5)(A) and (B) to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Comptroller General, as instructed by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in Bulletin No. 86-7. For those programs in the National Defense function that have already been reported by program, project, and activity, no additional report is necessary. The reports of the Departments and agencies are hereby incorporated in this Order.

I further direct the Director of Central Intelligence to report the programs, projects, and activities information required by section 252(a)(5)(A) and (B) on a classified basis to the appropriate committees of the Congress for the National Foreign Intelligence Program consistent with paragraphs I through 3 of this Order and to so advise the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Comptroller General, as instructed by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In accordance with section 252(a)(6)(A), amounts suspended, sequestered or reduced under this Order shall be withheld from obligation and amounts suspended or sequestered shall be permanently cancelled as of March 1, 1986, unless alternative legislation is enacted prior to that date.

This Order shall be reported to the Congress and shall be published in the Federal Register.

RONALD REAGAN
The White House,
February 1, 1986.