I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 182
To ensure the payment of interest and principal of the debt of the United
States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. M
CCLINTOCKintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To ensure the payment of interest and principal of the debt
of the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Default Prevention 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—At any time that the debt of the 7
United States Government subject to limitation under sec-8
tion 3101 of title 31, United States Code, has reached the 9
limitation imposed under such section, the Secretary of 10
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the Treasury (hereafter in this section referred to as ‘‘the 1
Secretary’’) shall— 2
(1) pay Tier I obligations as such obligations 3
become due, 4
(2) issue such obligations under chapter 31 of 5
title 31, United States Code, as— 6
(A) are necessary to make the payments 7
described in paragraph (1), or 8
(B) are to be held exclusively by a trust 9
fund referred to in subsection (b)(1)(A), 10
(3) pay Tier III obligations only to the extent 11
that the Secretary can still pay all Tier II obliga-12
tions as such obligations become due, 13
(4) pay Tier IV obligations only to the extent 14
that the Secretary can still pay all Tier II and Tier 15
III obligations as such obligations become due, 16
(5) pay Tier V obligations only to the extent 17
that the Secretary can still pay all Tier II, Tier III, 18
and Tier IV obligations as such obligations become 19
due, and 20
(6) submit to the Committee on Ways and 21
Means of the House of Representatives and the 22
Committee on Finance of the Senate a weekly writ-23
ten report containing the information described in 24
subsection (d). 25
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(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 1
(1) T
IER I OBLIGATIONS.—The term ‘‘Tier I 2
obligations’’ means payments necessary to provide 3
any of the following: 4
(A) Payment with legal tender pursuant to 5
the authority provided under section 3123 of 6
title 31, United States Code, of principal and 7
interest on debt held by— 8
(i) the public, 9
(ii) the Federal Old-Age and Sur-10
vivors Insurance Trust Fund or the Fed-11
eral Disability Insurance Trust Fund, or 12
(iii) the Federal Hospital Insurance 13
Trust Fund or the Federal Supplementary 14
Medical Insurance Trust Fund. 15
(B) Payments under the Medicare program 16
under title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 17
U.S.C. 1395 et seq.). 18
(2) T
IER II OBLIGATIONS.—The term ‘‘Tier II 19
obligations’’ means payments necessary to provide 20
any of the following: 21
(A) Any obligation of the Department of 22
Defense. 23
(B) Benefits under laws administered by 24
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. 25
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•HR 182 IH
(3) TIER III OBLIGATIONS.—The term ‘‘Tier III 1
obligations’’ means any obligation of the United 2
States which is not a Tier I, Tier II, Tier IV, or 3
Tier V obligation. 4
(4) T
IER IV OBLIGATIONS.—The term ‘‘Tier IV 5
obligations’’ means any payment which constitutes 6
any of the following: 7
(A) Compensation for any Federal em-8
ployee for official time under section 7131 of 9
such title 5, United States Code. 10
(B) Any payment for travel expenses for 11
any officer or employee of the Executive branch 12
of Government, including the President and 13
Vice President, unless such payment is a Tier 14
I or Tier II obligation. 15
(C) Compensation of any officer or em-16
ployee of the Executive branch of Government 17
(other than an individual in the competitive 18
service, as defined in section 2102 of title 5, 19
United States Code), including the President 20
and Vice President, unless such compensation is 21
a Tier I or Tier II obligation. 22
(5) T
IER V OBLIGATIONS.—The term ‘‘Tier V 23
obligations’’ means compensation of any Member of 24
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Congress (as that term is defined in section 2106 of 1
title 5, United States Code). 2
(c) C
OORDINATIONWITHPUBLICDEBTLIMIT.—Ob-3
ligations issued under subsection (a)(2) shall not be taken 4
into account as subject to the limitation imposed under 5
section 3101(b) of title 31, United States Code. The pre-6
ceding sentence shall not apply with respect to any obliga-7
tion after the first date (after the issuance of such obliga-8
tion) on which any modification or suspension of such lim-9
itation takes effect. 10
(d) W
EEKLYREPORTS.—The written report referred 11
to in subsection (a)(6) shall include, with respect to the 12
period covered by such report— 13
(1) the amount of Tier I obligations paid under 14
subsection (a)(1) during such period, 15
(2) the amount of obligations issued under sub-16
section (a)(2) during such period, and 17
(3) the amount of Tier II obligations, Tier III 18
obligations, Tier IV obligations, and Tier V obliga-19
tions which were paid during such period (stated 20
separately for each tier) and the aggregate amount 21
of such obligations which were due and unpaid as of 22
the close of such period (stated separately for each 23
tier). 24
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(e) NOINFERENCEWITHRESPECT TOEXISTING 1
A
UTHORITY TOPRIORITIZEPAYMENTS.—During any pe-2
riod with respect to which this section does not apply, 3
nothing in this section shall be interpreted to restrict the 4
authority of the Secretary to prioritize the payment of cer-5
tain obligations over other obligations. 6
Æ
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