# Budget Control Act of 2011 The law that ended the **2011 debt-ceiling standoff** by imposing **statutory caps on discretionary spending** (FY2012–FY2021), enforced by automatic [[Sequestration]] if breached, and creating the "supercommittee" (which failed, triggering the 2013 sequester). It was the high-water mark of Tea Party–era austerity politics. In practice the caps were **repeatedly raised** by bipartisan deals (2013, 2015, 2018, 2019), and both parties routed spending around them via [[Overseas Contingency Operations]] and emergency [[Supplemental Appropriations]]. The caps **expired after FY2021**. The BCA is the template for the [[Debt Ceiling]] as a leverage mechanism and for [[Sequestration]] as an enforcement hammer that mostly didn't fire. *Stub — expand with the 2011 standoff, the supercommittee, and the cap-raising deals.* ## Related - [[Sequestration]] · [[Debt Ceiling]] · [[Overseas Contingency Operations]] - [[Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending]] · [[Budget Hub]]