In December 1985 Congress passed the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, officially named the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act. The act was designed to gradually eliminate the federal government deficit by October 1, 1990. Automatic spending cuts to each item in the budget would occur if Congress and the president did not agree on voluntary cuts. In 1986 the Supreme Court declared the automatic cuts unconstitutional because the act gave the authority of making the cuts to Congress. The decision of which government agencies or programs should have their budgets cut was an executive power under the Constitution. Congress rewrote the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in 1987 and restored the automatic cuts. Under the new act, however, the president and the Office of Management and Budget decided which agencies or programs received spending cuts and how much the cuts would be.
