Constitutionality of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005

Publication Date: April 2006

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Keywords: Deficit Reduction Act

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Abstract:

This memorandum responds to inquiries regarding whether the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, S. 1932, 109th Cong., 1st Sess., was enacted as Public Law 109-171 in compliance with the Constitution. A question has been raised about whether the text of the enrolled version of S. 1932 that was sent to and signed by the President and certified as passing the Senate by the President pro tempore and the House by the Speaker accurateky reflected the text that each member had passed. A published report has indicated that after the Senate acted on the text the House has passed, an error allegedly was made in transcribing the Senate-passed text and that the incorrectly transcribed text, known as the engrossed version, was returned to the House which then agreed to it. It also has been reported that after the House passed the allegedly incorrectly transcribed engrossed text, the error was corrected by a Senate clerk before the bill was certified as passing the House by the Speaker and the Senate by the President pro tempore in the enrolled version before it was sent to President George W. Bush, who signed it on the afternoon of February 8, 2006.