PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Feb 11, 2020
Making Americans Know about Excessive spending through Commonsense Efforts to Notice and Target Shenanigans Act or the MAKE CENTS Act
This bill modifies the federal budget process to add reporting requirements, limit spending at the end of a fiscal year, and impose penalties on Congress for failing to approve a budget resolution or the annual appropriations bills on a timely basis.
Among other changes, the bill
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
requires federal agencies to report annually to Congress regarding federally funded projects that are more than five years behind schedule or have expenditures that are at least $1 billion more than the original cost estimate for the project;
requires recipients of federal funding to disclose specified details regarding the cost to the federal government and nongovernmental sources;
prohibits an executive agency from spending more in the last 2 months of a fiscal year than the agency's average monthly spending for the previous 10 months;
prohibits Members of Congress from being paid in a fiscal year until both chambers approve the budget resolution and pass all of the regular appropriations bills for that fiscal year; and
limits congressional recesses, adjournments, and travel if Congress has not completed work on a budget resolution and the annual appropriations bills by certain deadlines.
People & committees
Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA] · R–IA
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Jan 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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Analyze S.3267 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
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