President's Fifth Special Message for Fiscal Year 1985
Gao ID: OGC-85-6 April 12, 1985The President's fifth special message for fiscal year 1985 was submitted to Congress proposing new rescissions totalling $372 billion. GAO reviewed the message but found no additional information useful to Congress in its consideration of the President's proposals.
The rescissions proposed were submitted pursuant to the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 authorizing the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to draft legislation, if necessary, to achieve expected savings. GAO noted that the budget authority provided would otherwise be available for services if 10 percent was placed in reserve and not made available for obligation or expenditure. OMB advised GAO that it considered the actions taken to comply with this provision of congressionally required withholdings and did not intend to submit special messages which report these amounts as impoundments. GAO had no objection to this approach.