H.R. 3746 — Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
Official title: To provide for a responsible increase to the debt ceiling.
The debt-ceiling deal: it suspended the debt limit through January 1, 2025, set statutory caps on discretionary spending for fiscal 2024 and 2025, and rescinded some previously enacted funds.
What the tracked text contains
Of the money itself: $66.7B across 3 tracked line-items — veterans ($44.7B, 67%) and commerce & housing credit ($22.0B, 33%) lead. The largest single line: $24,455,000,000 for Appropriation to the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund for veterans' health care (PACT Act), available Oct 1 2024. Beyond the cash, the text also sets $6.52T of authorizations (a ceiling on future spending) and $3.1B of revenue & offsets (pay-fors) — disclosed beside the total, never summed into it.
If the title matched the money, it would be the “Debt-Ceiling Suspension and Spending-Caps Act of 2023”.
118th Congress · Enrolled (enacted, Public Law) · Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) · signed into law June 3, 2023 · read the full bill text →
Where the money goes
$66.7B across 3 tracked items · compare against another law →This law mostly caps future spending, it doesn’t spend. Its largest figures are statutory limits on what future appropriations bills may provide — a ceiling imposed on Congress, not money handed out. The pie shows the small directly-spent part; the caps are disclosed below.
The largest verified line-items. This pie breaks down the biggest spending items in the bill — appropriations and mandatory (direct) spending — by category. Every dollar is quoted from the text; click any slice to read them. It is not necessarily every dollar in the bill, and the gaps are not always small ones — where an account was left out, How this was built at the foot of this page says so and why, and a large omission can change which category ranks first. Figures that aren’t spending — authorizations, guarantee ceilings, pay-fors, and carve-outs already counted — are deliberately left out and disclosed below.
The money map
blocks sized by dollars — open one for the law’s own wordsArea is dollars. Each block is one category of tracked spending in H.R. 3746, sized by its share of the $66.7B this page tracks. Open a block and it lists the line-items inside it, each with the passage of the enacted text that carries the dollar figure, quoted word for word, and the section it sits in. Category names are the extraction’s own labels, printed as they come — nothing here calls a category worthwhile or wasteful. The quote is the argument.
This map divides the same tracked total the pie above divides — money the text writes as exact dollar lines. It is not the bill’s total fiscal effect: what the extraction leaves out is stated above the pie and in How this was built at the foot of this page, and the dollars deliberately kept out of the count are listed under the map.
veterans$44.7B
$44,723,000,000 · 67% of the $66,723,000,000 this page tracks · 2 tracked line-items, largest first
- Appropriation to the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund for veterans' health care (PACT Act), available Oct 1 2024$24,455,000,000→ Dept. of Veterans Affairs - Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund
“…1, 2023, and shall remain available until September 30, 2028; and (2)$24,455,000,000, which shall become available on October 1,…”
Division C - Appropriation for Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund - Appropriation to the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund for veterans' health care (PACT Act), available Oct 1 2023$20,268,000,000→ Dept. of Veterans Affairs - Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund
“…as authorized by section 324 of title 38, United States Code— (1)$20,268,000,000, which shall become available on October 1,…”
Division C - Appropriation for Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund
These same line-items appear in the full cited ledger lower on this page, where each one also carries the fiscal year the text gives it, when it gives one.
commerce & housing credit$22.0B
$22,000,000,000 · 33% of the $66,723,000,000 this page tracks · 1 tracked line-item, largest first
- Appropriation to the Dept. of Commerce Nonrecurring Expenses Fund, FY2023 ($11B each for FY2024/FY2025 'Government efficiencies'; PAYGO-exempt)$22,000,000,000→ Dept. of Commerce - Nonrecurring Expenses Fund
“…2023, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $22,000,000,000, to remain available until expended, of…”
Division C - Appropriation for Department of Commerce Nonrecurring Expenses Fund
These same line-items appear in the full cited ledger lower on this page, where each one also carries the fiscal year the text gives it, when it gives one.
- Authorizations (a ceiling on future spending) · 9 tracked items$6.52T
- Revenue & offsets (pay-fors) · 6 tracked items$3.1B
None of these are added to the map. They are ceilings, borrowing limits, carve-outs of dollars already counted inside a block above, or pay-fors — summing them into the map would count the same money twice and draw permission to spend as spending. Each is itemized further down this page.
| Category | Tracked dollars | Share of $66,723,000,000 | Line-items |
|---|---|---|---|
| veterans | $44,723,000,000 | 67% | 2 |
| commerce & housing credit | $22,000,000,000 | 33% | 1 |
| Tracked total | $66,723,000,000 | 100% | 3 |
What’s in this bill
every mechanism we could extract, at one scaleA law can move money four different ways, and only one of them is cash. This compares what H.R. 3746 actually spends against what it authorizes, caps, guarantees or pays for. Every bar is a sample. Each one sums the tracked line-items in that mechanism — the largest figures that appear in the text as an exact dollar string — so a bar is a floor, not a mechanism total, and on some laws it is a small fraction of one. Each bar carries its item count and, where the items carry years, the span it covers and where those years came from.
These bars are not added together. Only the top bar is money leaving the Treasury. The rest are ceilings, borrowing limits, carve-outs of money already counted above, or pay-fors — summing them would count the same dollars twice and treat permission to spend as spending. How this was built says what each extraction left out.
What CBO says it does to the deficit
verified estimate, quoted with its basisCBO estimated a $1.5 trillion deficit reduction over 2023–2033 (mostly from the statutory caps on discretionary funding — projected savings that depend on future Congresses living within the caps.) Source: CBO's Estimate of the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 3746 · CBO, How the Fiscal Responsibility Act Affects Projections of Federal Debt
This same estimate sits beside each member’s recorded vote on their page and feeds the grade’s fiscal-conduct block — see the methodology.
The terms on this page, in plain English
What these things actually are — and what this bill does to each of them. Written for readers, not staffers; every figure in the “in this bill” lines appears elsewhere on this page.
Authorization (“authorized to be appropriated”)
Permission, not money. “There is authorized to be appropriated $X” sets a ceiling on what a future spending bill may provide — and if that later bill never passes, not a dollar moves. Much of a landmark law's famous headline number is this kind of permission, which is why this site never adds it to the spending total.
Mandatory vs. discretionary spending
Discretionary money must be re-approved every year in appropriations bills — if Congress does nothing, it stops. Mandatory (also called direct) spending is written into permanent law and flows automatically until Congress changes the law itself. Benefit programs mostly work the mandatory way, which is why they don't show up in the yearly funding fights.
Rescission
Taking back money Congress previously provided that hasn't been spent yet. It reduces spending on paper; how much it saves in practice depends on whether the money was ever going out the door.
The debt limit (debt ceiling)
A legal cap on how much the government may borrow to pay bills it has already run up. Raising or suspending it does not approve any new spending — it lets the Treasury keep paying for what Congress already bought. Hitting it would mean defaulting on obligations, which is why it becomes leverage in negotiations.
In this bill: The whole point of this law: it suspends the limit through January 1, 2025. That provision carries no dollar figure, which is why the law's most important act appears in none of the charts above.
Statutory spending caps
A law telling future appropriations bills how big they may be. The caps are enforced by automatic across-the-board cuts if Congress breaches them. They are limits on future decisions — not money moving — so a cap figure can be enormous while the law itself spends comparatively little.
In this bill: The fiscal 2024 and 2025 caps are here — $886.3 billion defense plus $703.7 billion nondefense for 2024, then $895.2 billion plus $710.7 billion — roughly half of the $6.52 trillion disclosure above. The rest is out-year budget-enforcement ceilings (enforced by congressional points of order, not automatic cuts) plus smaller ceilings and adjustments — not the two-year caps.
Advance appropriation
Money approved now for a future year. Used above all for veterans' benefits and care, so that a government shutdown or a late budget can never interrupt disability checks or hospital operations — the money for next year is already law.
Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund
A dedicated account for veterans' toxic-exposure health care and benefits, created by the PACT Act. It is funded as mandatory money precisely so this care never has to compete with the rest of the VA budget in each year's funding fight.
In this bill: Even the debt-ceiling deal funds it: the $24.5 billion and $20.3 billion appropriations to the fund are two of this law's only three actual spending lines — including the largest.
What it should actually be called
“The Pay Our Old Bills, Promise to Spend Less Later Act”
Light-hearted, but earned — every word of it is accounted for in the figures and terms above.
How they voted
| For | Against | Abstained | Did not vote | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| House | 249 71% | 100 28% | — | 3 1% | 352 |
| Democrats | 130 76% | 40 23% | — | 2 1% | 172 |
| Republicans | 119 66% | 60 33% | — | 1 1% | 180 |
| Senate | 57 63% | 32 35% | — | 2 2% | 91 |
| Democrats | 40 91% | 4 9% | — | — | 44 |
| Republicans | 16 36% | 27 60% | — | 2 4% | 45 |
| Independents | 1 50% | 1 50% | — | — | 2 |
“Did not vote” is not the same as “absent.” The record distinguishes Present — there, and formally declining to take a side — from Not Voting, where no vote was cast. That is usually absence, but the roll call does not say so, so this table does not either.
Did not vote (5): Angie Craig (D-MN), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Deborah K. Ross (D-NC), Jim Banks (R-IN), Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
A member is recorded as not voting for many ordinary reasons — illness, a death in the family, official travel, or a paired vote arranged with a colleague on the other side. The roll call gives no reason, so neither does this page, and nothing here is counted against anyone’s grade. This site tracks a small number of major bills, so a single absence is a large share of what is shown here and a very small share of the hundreds of votes a member actually casts.
These tallies count the 443 members sitting today who have a recorded position, not the historical result. Several of these bills passed in earlier Congresses, and members who have since left are not in the roster — so the totals here are smaller than the 435 + 100 that voted at the time. Where both chambers held a recorded vote, a member is grouped by the chamber they sit in now; anyone who has switched chambers since then appears in their current row.
Statutory spending caps (a limit, not permission) — $6.52T
These figures amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act to set a CEILING on what future appropriations bills may provide. They are the opposite of an authorization: an authorization is permission to seek money later, a cap is a limit imposed on future Congresses. No cash moves either way, so they are disclosed here and never summed into the pie.
- Additional discretionary spending LIMIT for FY2029 (Senate CBA 302(a)(5) enforcement ceiling, not money)$1.67T
- Additional discretionary spending LIMIT for FY2026 (Senate CBA 302(a)(5) enforcement ceiling, not money)$1.62T
- Statutory discretionary spending CAP (ceiling, not new money) for the revised security (defense) category, FY2025$895.2BFY2025
- Statutory discretionary spending CAP (ceiling, not new money) for the revised security (defense) category, FY2024$886.3BFY2024
- Statutory discretionary spending CAP (ceiling, not new money) for the revised nonsecurity category, FY2025$710.7B
- Statutory discretionary spending CAP (ceiling, not new money) for the revised nonsecurity category, FY2024$703.7B
- Not-to-exceed CEILING on FY2025 advance appropriations (House budget-enforcement rule, not money)$28.9B
- Program-integrity CAP ADJUSTMENT: additional new budget authority allowed for continuing disability reviews, FY2025$1.6BFY2025
- Program-integrity CAP ADJUSTMENT: additional new budget authority allowed for health care fraud and abuse control, FY2025$630.0MFY2025
Revenue & offsets (pay-fors) — $3.1B
Tax changes, rescissions and other provisions that RAISE or save money rather than spend it. Not spending — disclosed so the law’s cost is not overstated by ignoring how it was paid for.
- Rescission of unobligated IRS enforcement/operations balances from the Inflation Reduction Act$1.4B
- Rescission of unobligated balances (CARES Act sec. 2118(a) as added by ARP sec. 9032)$1.0B
- Rescission of unobligated CARES Act balances (Public Law 116-136 sec. 4120)$295.0M
- Rescission of unobligated CARES Act balances (Public Law 116-136 sec. 4027)$200.0M
- Rescission of unobligated American Rescue Plan balances (Public Law 117-2 sec. 3301(a)(2)(A))$150.0M
- Rescission of unobligated DoD Procurement - Defense Production Act Purchases balances (CARES Act)$61.4M
Every tracked dollar, cited
3 spending line-items · none carries a fiscal yearveterans$44.7B · 67%
- Appropriation to the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund for veterans' health care (PACT Act), available Oct 1 2024$24,455,000,000available until FY2028→ Dept. of Veterans Affairs - Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund
“…1, 2023, and shall remain available until September 30, 2028; and (2)$24,455,000,000, which shall become available on October 1,…”
Division C - Appropriation for Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund - Appropriation to the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund for veterans' health care (PACT Act), available Oct 1 2023$20,268,000,000→ Dept. of Veterans Affairs - Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund
“…as authorized by section 324 of title 38, United States Code— (1)$20,268,000,000, which shall become available on October 1,…”
Division C - Appropriation for Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund
commerce & housing credit$22.0B · 33%
- Appropriation to the Dept. of Commerce Nonrecurring Expenses Fund, FY2023 ($11B each for FY2024/FY2025 'Government efficiencies'; PAYGO-exempt)$22,000,000,000available until expended→ Dept. of Commerce - Nonrecurring Expenses Fund
“…2023, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $22,000,000,000, to remain available until expended, of…”
Division C - Appropriation for Department of Commerce Nonrecurring Expenses Fund
How this was built
XML itertext of the enrolled bill joined into faithful text, parsed structurally (division/title/section); every dollar string extracted as an exact substring of that text and re-verified. 18 of 18 sampled figures were re-located as exact strings in the source text. Source: GovInfo enrolled bill text. Full bill text.
Extraction notes (technical)
H.R. 3746 is a debt-limit / caps-and-rescissions law (bill-type 'olc'), NOT an appropriations act. Its official title is a debt-ceiling increase; Division D suspends the debt limit through Jan 1 2025 (no dollar figure). CLASSIFICATION IS THE WHOLE STORY HERE: (1) The big Division A figures ($886.349B/$703.651B for FY2024, $895.212B/$710.688B for FY2025) are STATUTORY DISCRETIONARY SPENDING CAPS - amendments to BBEDCA sec. 251(c) that set ceilings on FUTURE appropriations, not money this bill provides. They are tagged 'authorization' (the taxonomy's 'ceiling on future appropriations' bucket) and are the primary CBO-scored deficit reducer RELATIVE TO BASELINE - the $886B is a ceiling, not a saving and not a spend. The FY2026-2029 figures ($1.62T-$1.67T) are Senate/CBA 302(a)(5) ENFORCEMENT limits only. The program-integrity items ($1.63B CDR, $630M HCFAC) and the $28.852B advance-appropriations figure are likewise ceilings/allowances, not appropriations. (2) The ONLY genuine new budget authority the Act PROVIDES is mandatory/PAYGO-exempt and made directly in the law text with 'there are/is appropriated ... out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated': the VA Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund ($20.268B FY2024 + $24.455B FY2025) and the Commerce Nonrecurring Expenses Fund ($22B, split $11B/$11B). These are tagged 'direct_spending' (mandatory budget authority created outside the annual appropriations process), so the pie of pure 'appropriation' (discretionary) is $0 - the honest result for this bill. (3) Division B rescissions are 'revenue_or_offset' (pay-fors that SAVE money). CRITICAL READING NOTE: most Sec. 2 rescissions are phrased 'all unobligated balances ... WITH THE EXCEPTION OF $X' - the $X is the amount RETAINED, NOT the amount rescinded; the rescinded total is not a stated figure. Only Secs. 10, 11, 14, 24, 40, and 251 state a concrete RESCINDED dollar. The 'with the exception of $X' carve-outs (amounts RETAINED, i.e. NOT rescinded) were REMOVED by the adversarial verifier: a retained balance is neither spending nor a saving/offset, and tagging it 'revenue_or_offset' would have wrongly inflated the disclosed pay-fors. (4) spending_source='mixed': the concrete cap and rescission dollars are in the bill text; the headline ~$1.5T 10-year deficit reduction lives in the CBO cost estimate for H.R. 3746 (cbo.gov), not as a line in the operative text. The IRS rescission is only the $1,389,525,000 first tranche in the text; the widely-reported additional $20B IRS cut came via a separate FY2024 side agreement, not this enrolled text.
How this lands in a state
three layers, in order: reported, read, shownPick a state and this section gives you three different things, and keeps them apart. First, what the government itself reports — obligations Treasury tags to this law, where such a tag exists. Second, an AI assessment written from this page’s verified record and that state’s published statistics, and checked against both before it was published here. Third, the state’s own numbers — the same rows the assessment was given, with their sources and vintages, so you can check the reading against the record it came from. Every state is treated identically.
1. What the government reports
no official per-state breakdown exists for this lawNo official source breaks H.R. 3746 down by state, so this page publishes no per-state dollar figure for it. No Disaster Emergency Fund Code maps to this law, so no reported obligation can be traced to it. Treasury tags money to a public law through DEFC; without one there is no audit trail from an award back to this bill, and any per-state figure would be modelled rather than derived.
Two of the 31 laws tracked on this site can be broken down honestly — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act — because Treasury tags their money with a Disaster Emergency Fund Code that maps to one public law and no other. Where no such code exists, a per-state figure would be modelled rather than derived, and this site does not publish modelled numbers.
The route we refuse to take, and why (technical)
USAspending's award SEARCH endpoints accept the same def_codes filter but select AWARDS, not DOLLARS: they return an award's entire obligation if any part of it touched the law's money. That route reported a single Sandia National Laboratories contract as $42.8B of IIJA money in New Mexico against a true DEFC-apportioned $64.5M, and overstated ARPA nationally by about 80%. It is not used here and must not be.
2. The assessment
AI-written, checked before publication — not the site’s voiceClaude (an AI model) read H.R. 3746’s verified line items and their quoted statutory text against each state’s published statistics, and reported how much of the law turns on anything measured there. Every reading was generated and checked before this page was published — against the same two records, by the same check the site applies — and one that failed the check was discarded rather than shown to anyone. It is not this site’s editorial voice. It is not a prediction and it is not advice. Every figure in it traces to the record below, and every provision it names carries statutory language quoted word for word. If it ever disagrees with a number on this page, the page is right. “Little connection” is a normal and expected answer.
Choose a state above to read it.
3. The state’s own numbers
the rows the assessment was givenChoose a state above to see the measured profile the assessment reads from — its industry mix, its concentrations, and its energy consumption, each with its source and vintage.
Ask about this bill
Ask a question and Claude (an AI model) answers it from this page’s verified record only — the line items, disclosures and CBO estimate shown above. Answers are AI-generated at your request, are not this site’s editorial voice, and will say so when the record doesn’t cover your question. If an answer ever disagrees with a number on the page, the page is right.