Constitutional Amendment

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment prohibiting total outlays for a fiscal year from exceeding total receipts for that fiscal year unless Congress authorizes the excess by a three-fifths roll call vote of each chamber.

The prohibition excludes outlays for repayment of debt principal, receipts derived from borrowing, and receipts or outlays of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

The amendment requires the President to annually submit to Congress a budget in which total outlays do not exceed total receipts.

The balanced budget requirement does not apply if:

• a declaration of war is in effect or if the United States is engaged in military conflict which causes an imminent and serious military threat to national security, or
• during the fiscal year or preceding fiscal year, the U.S. economy grew by less than 0% in real gross domestic product during two or more consecutive quarters or the unemployment rate was more than 7% during two or more consecutive months.

The amendment prohibits a court from enforcing the requirements by ordering cuts to Social Security or Medicare payments unless the funds available to the trust fund for a program are not sufficient to cover the outlays that would occur during the year if the fund were fully solvent.