Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to balancing the budget.
H. J. Res. 3 proposes a constitutional amendment to require the United States to balance its budget. The core idea is to restrict annual federal outlays (spending) to not exceed receipts (revenues) and to cap total outlays at 18% of GDP, with two-thirds congressional votes required to exceed these limits. The President would have to submit yearly budgets that comply with these rules. The amendment also limits the ability to raise taxes or increase revenue without a supermajority vote, and it tightens the debt limit, requiring a supermajority to raise it. There are limited, specific waivers for wartime or imminent national security military conflicts, subject to rollcall votes. Courts would be barred from ordering revenue increases to enforce the amendment, and the new rules would take effect starting in the fifth fiscal year after ratification. In short, the proposal envisions a legally binding framework to prevent deficits, impose hard spending and debt constraints, and require broad political consensus to raise taxes or increase debt, while allowing narrowly defined emergency exceptions.
Key Points
- 1Section 1: Outlays (spending) cannot exceed receipts in a fiscal year unless two-thirds of each House votes to permit a specific excess via a rollcall vote.
- 2Section 2: Outlays cannot exceed 18% of GDP for the relevant year unless two-thirds of each House votes to permit a specific excess via a rollcall vote.
- 3Section 3: Each year’s budget proposal from the President must show outlays not exceeding receipts and not exceeding 18% of GDP.
- 4Section 4: Any bill that imposes a new tax or increases the statutory tax rate or total revenue requires a two-thirds vote in each House (with a caveat that increases in revenue from lowering tax rates are excluded from this determination).
- 5Section 5: The debt limit may not be increased unless three-fifths of each House vote to allow such an increase.
- 6Section 6: Congress may waive Sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 for a fiscal year in which a war is declared by rollcall vote and a majority supports a specific excess.
- 7Section 7: Congress may waive Sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 for a fiscal year in ongoing military conflict deemed to pose an imminent and serious national threat, with a three-fifths House and a targeted, limited excess by rollcall vote.
- 8Section 8: No court (federal or state) may order a revenue increase to enforce the amendment.
- 9Section 9: Definitions of receipts (excluding borrowing) and outlays (excluding debt principal repayments) for applying the limits.
- 10Section 10: Congress may pass implementing legislation to enforce the article, which can use estimates of outlays, receipts, and GDP.
- 11Section 11: The amendment takes effect beginning with the fifth fiscal year after ratification.