Upcoming Congressional Fiscal Policy Deadlines
Oct 1, 2020 | Budget Process
Updated 10/1/2020: The Senate passed a continuing resolution through Dec. 11, 2020, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, that the House had passed on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The President has signed it. The measure extended COVID-related nutrition benefits that would have expired on Sept. 30 for a another year, but it did not extend expanded unemployment benefits that were included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
The next two years will include several predictable fiscal policy deadlines that will force congressional action. Many of these deadlines could bring additional costs if Congress acts irresponsibly, or they could present an opportunity for Congress to reduce deficits.
We will regularly update this tracker to help reporters, congressional staff, and others interested in fiscal policy keep tabs of major deadlines. We recommend that you bookmark it and come back to check in.
Congress may be compelled to act on each of these dates or enact short-term extensions to move the deadlines to buy time for action. Dates in red indicate past due deadlines.
| Issue | Deadline | Potential 2020-2030 Cost | More Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FISA Reauthorization Needed | March 15, 2020 | TBD | Certain activities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act were reauthorized for another four years in 2015 after a one-day lapse in the law. A November 2019 CR extended those provisions for another four months, and Congress has since been unable to agree on a reauthorization. | |||
| Increased Unemployment Compensation Benefits Expire | July 31, 2020 | TBD | The CARES Act provides an additional $600 per week to recipients of unemployment insurance or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. | |||
| Paycheck Protection Program | August 8, 2020 | TBD | The CARES Act allows the Small Business Administration (SBA) to make loans to businesses with less than 500 employees, capped at $10 million. The loan will be fully forgiven if funds are spent on payroll, rent, mortgage interest, and utilities1. PPP was reauthorized for a second round of funding under the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, but funds tapered off over the summer. | |||
| Reauthorization of TANF & Related Programs Needed | December 11, 2020 | TBD | Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Child Care Entitlement to States had been set to expire in November under an extension that was included in the CARES Act, but the September CR extended it into mid-December. | |||
| Funding the Government / Appropriations | December 11, 2020 | None if Congress abides by budget caps | A continuing resolution through Dec. 11, 2020 was signed into law on Oct. 1. Q&A: Everything You Should Know About Government Shutdowns; Appropriations Watch | |||
| Health Extenders | December 11, 2020 | TBD | Various Medicare and Medicaid policies, including the community mental health services demonstration program and the delay of reductions to disproportionate share hospitals, will expire under the extensions that were included in the September CR. | |||
| Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program Expires | December 31, 2020 | TBD | The CARES Act creates a temporary Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits and expands who is eligible, among other changes. (Note that some UI recipients may exhaust all UI benefits before the deadline.) | |||
| Looser Caps on Interest Deductibility and Operating Losses Expire | December 31, 2020 | TBD |
The CARES Act temporarily increases the business interest deduction limit from 30 percent to 50 percent of taxable income and temporarily suspends the taxable income limitation on Net Operating Losses (NOLs) and allows businesses to carry NOLs back five years. |
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| Paid Family Leave Credit Expires | December 31, 2020 | $1 billion for 1 year; $25 billion if extended permanently | TCJA, the 2017 tax bill, created a paid leave credit for employers that provide family and medical leave that expires at the end of 2019. An extension through 2020 was included in the deal to fund the government for the rest of FY 2020. |
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| Alcohol Taxes | December 31, 2020 | Provisions from TCJA modifying the rates of taxation of beer, wine, and distilled spirits and certain other rules were originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2019. Extensions through 2020 were included in the deal to fund the government for the rest of FY 2020. | ||||
| Medical Expense Deduction | December 31, 2020 | $3 billion for 1 year; $30 billion if extended permanently | The deduction would shrink, covering expenses that exceed 10% of adjusted gross income instead of 7.5% currently as provided in the 2017 tax bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). An extension through 2020 was included in the deal to fund the government for the rest of FY 2020. | |||
| “Tax Extenders” – 20+ tax breaks that routinely expire | December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2022 | ~$20 billion for 1 year; ~$100 billion if extended permanently | Retroactively reinstated for 2017; were allowed to expire for 2018 and not reinstated before tax filing for the year. Retroactive extensions running mostly through 2020 (a few through 2022) were included in the deal to fund the government for the rest of FY 2020. |
Longer-Term Deadlines
- July 2021: Debt ceiling suspension expires
- End of FY 2021: Surface transportation law expiration & Highway Trust Fund exhaustion (The September 2020 CR provided a transfer of general revenues to the Highway Trust Fund.)
- September 2021: National Flood Insurance Program expires
- 2022: Various tax provisions expire: amortization of research & experimentation costs, interest deduction rules
- 2023: Full expensing tax phase-out begins; continues until 2027
- FY 2024: Medicare Hospital Insurance (Part A) Trust Fund exhaustion
- FY 2026: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Trust Fund exhaustion
- 2026: TCJA individual income tax provisions expire; Export-Import Bank authorization expires
- 2027: Multiemployer Pension Insurance Fund exhaustion
- 2031: Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund exhaustion (combined OASI and SSDI exhaustion date is 2031)
These trust fund exhaustion dates are estimates provided by the Congressional Budget Office in its 2020 long-term budget outlook. In April 2020, the Social Security Trustees projected different dates of 2034 for Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and 2065 for Disability Insurance; those estimates do not include the impact of COVID-19 on projected insolvency of the trust funds.
1 Under the Paycheck Protection Program, small businesses are eligible for loan forgiveness that's equal to the amount they spend on payroll, rent, mortgage interest, and utilities in the eight weeks after the loan is made. The forgiven amount cannot exceed the size of the loan, and the amount forgiven will be reduced if small businesses decrease the size of their workforce or reduce the pay of any employee by more than 25 percent of the employee's previous year's pay.
