Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

This bill is a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would require the United States to achieve a balanced budget within ten years of ratification. It would treat expenditures and receipts in a narrow way: expenditures exclude only debt payments, and receipts exclude proceeds from borrowing. In other words, the non-debt portion of outlays and the non-borrowing revenue would have to balance over the decade after ratification. The amendment also allows, for emergency situations, a temporary exception: with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, Congress could authorize limited periods of spending beyond the normal limits, with the debt incurred for those expenditures to be repaid as soon as practicable. The amendment would take effect if ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years of submission.