US Government Debt Different - Finance Department - University of ...

Jeremy Kreisberg & Kelley O’Mara (Under the Supervision of Professor Howell Jackson)Funds in order to credit the accounts for incoming revenues. 341Several similar bills were proposed in 2011. Legislation introducedby Senator Pat Toomey and Representative Tom McClintock 342would prioritize principal and interest payments. 343 Senator DavidVitter and Representative David Heller’s proposal 344 would prioritize“all obligations on the debt held by the public and Social Securitybenefits,” while Representative Martin Stutzman 345 would add somemilitary expenditures to the Vitter/Heller proposal. 346 These bills didnot pass.3092. Government ShutdownIn order to ground his prioritization strategy in statutory guidelines,the President could use government shutdown procedures to directhis decisions. When Congress and the President fail to pass a timely 347appropriations bill or continuing resolution, government shutdownprocedures define the guidelines for running the government. 348 TheAntideficiency Act prohibits voluntary services for the government“except for emergencies involving the safety of human life or theprotection of property” or those services otherwise “authorized bylaw.” 349 Pursuant to the Antideficiency Act and several opinionsby Attorneys General, 350 the Office of Management and Budget’smost recent Circular No. A-11 351 instructs agencies to prepare for agovernment shutdown by planning to retain only those employeesthat fall within specified categories. 352 Government shutdown341Pub. L. No. 104-103 (Feb. 8, 1996). See supra note 181. “In addition to any other authorityprovided by law, the Secretary of the Treasury may issue under chapter 31 of title 31, UnitedStates Code, obligations of the United States before March 1, 1996, in an amount equal to themonthly insurance benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act in March 1996.”342S. 163/H.R. 421; 112 th Congress.343Levit, supra note 171, at 13.344S. 259/H.R. 568; 112 th Congress.345H.R. 728; 112 th Congress.346Levit, supra, note 171, at 13.347A timely budget or continuing resolution is passed by the end of the fiscal year.348See Puja Seam & Brad Shron, Government Shutdowns 1 (Harvard Law School Federal BudgetPolicy Seminar, Briefing Paper No. 10, 2005) (available at http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/hjackson/GovernmentsShutdowns_10.pdf).34931 U.S.C. § 1342 (1996).350See Seam & Shron, supra note 348, at 15.351Id.352Office of Mgmt. & Budget, Circular No. A-11 (2011), available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/a11_current_year/a_11_2011.pdf, at 2, Section 124. “Theircompensation is financed by a resource other than annual appropriations; [t]hey are necessary