Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act
The Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act would create a recurring three-year budget reduction cycle for any federal program that no longer has authorized funding (an “unauthorized program”). Starting in fiscal year 2026, the budgetary level for such programs would be reduced annually according to a set schedule: a 10% cut in the first year after the authorization expires, followed by 15% cuts in the second and third years if the program remains unauthorized. After the third year, the program would be terminated unless Congress reauthorizes it (with a sunset of up to three years). If a program is reauthorized within the year a reduction would apply, the reduction would be canceled for that year and reapplied if the reauthorization ends or expires again. The bill also requires revisions to be transmitted to the appropriate chairpersons of the Budget and Appropriations committees and limits obligations of funds for terminated programs without new authorization. In short, the act is a mechanism to impose automatic budgetary reductions on expired programs, with the goal of pressuring Congress to reauthorize or terminate such programs, and to clearer spell out the consequences for continued unauthorized spending.
Key Points
- 1Establishes a three-year, recurring budgetary level reduction cycle for unauthorized programs, beginning in FY 2026.
- 2Defines an unauthorized program as one listed in the annual Congressional Budget Office report on expired and expiring authorizations of appropriations (or successor reports).
- 3Applies a stepwise reduction: 10% of the expiring year’s funding in the first year after expiration; 15% reductions in the second and third years if still unauthorized.
- 4Terminates any unauthorized program after the third year of reductions, effective October 1 of the following fiscal year, with unobligated funds available for closing obligations.
- 5Allows an exemption if a reauthorization with a sunset (up to three years) is enacted during the reduction year; the reduction is suspended and then restored if the program is not renewed.