[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 115 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. J. RES. 115

    Proposing a balanced budget and line-item veto amendment to the 
                   Constitution of the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 18, 1993

Mr. Grams introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
    Proposing a balanced budget and line-item veto amendment to the 
                   Constitution of the United States.

    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House 
concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an 
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be 
valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when 
ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States 
within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

                              ``Article --

    ``Section 1. Prior to each fiscal year, Congress shall adopt a 
statement of receipts and outlays for such fiscal year in which total 
outlays are not greater than total receipts. Congress may amend such 
statement provided revised outlays are not greater than revised 
receipts. Congress may provide in such statement for a specific excess 
of outlays over receipts by a vote directed solely to that subject in 
which three-fifths of the whole number of each House agree to such 
excess. Congress and the President shall ensure that actual outlays do 
not exceed the outlays set forth in such statement.
    ``Section 2. Total receipts for any fiscal year set forth in the 
statement adopted pursuant to the first section of this Article shall 
not increase by a rate greater than the rate of increase in national 
income in the second prior fiscal year, unless a three-fifths majority 
of the whole number of each House of Congress shall have passed a bill 
directed solely to approving specific additional receipts and such bill 
has become law.
    ``Section 3. Prior to each fiscal year, the President shall 
transmit to Congress a proposed statement of receipts and outlays for 
such fiscal year consistent with the provisions of this Article.
    ``Section 4. Congress may waive the provisions of this Article for 
any fiscal year in which a declaration of war is in effect.
    ``Section 5. Total receipts shall include all receipts of the 
United States except those derived from borrowing and total outlays 
shall include all outlays of the United States except those for the 
repayment of debt principal.
    ``Section 6. The amount of Federal public debt as of the first day 
of the second fiscal year beginning after the ratification of this 
Article shall become a permanent limit on such debt and there shall be 
no increase in such amount unless three-fifths of the whole number of 
each House of Congress shall have passed a bill approving such increase 
and such bill has become law.
    ``Section 7. The President shall have power, when any bill, 
including any vote, resolution, or order, which contains any item of 
spending authority, is presented to him pursuant to section 7 of 
article I of this Constitution, to separately approve, reduce, or 
disapprove any spending provision, or part of any spending provision, 
contained therein.
    ``When the President exercises this power, he shall signify in 
writing such portions of the bill he has approved and which portions he 
has reduced. These portions, to the extent not reduced, shall then 
become a law. The President shall return with his objections any 
disapproved or reduced portions of a bill to the House in which the 
bill originated. The Congress shall separately reconsider each such 
returned portion of the bill in the manner prescribed for disapproved 
bills in section 7 of article I of this Constitution. Any portion of a 
bill which shall not have been returned or approved by the President 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented 
to him shall become a law, unless the Congress by their adjournment 
prevent its return, in which case it shall not become a law.
    ``Section 8. Items of spending authority are those portions of a 
bill that appropriate money from the Treasury or that otherwise 
authorize or limit the withdrawal or obligation of money from the 
Treasury. Such items shall include, without being limited to, items of 
appropriations, spending authorizations, authority to borrow money on 
the credit of the United States or otherwise, dedications of revenues, 
entitlements, uses of assets, insurance, guarantees of borrowing, and 
any authority to incur obligations.
    ``Section 9. Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of this Article shall 
take effect for the fiscal year 1997 or for the second fiscal year 
beginning after its ratification, whichever is later. Sections 7 and 8 
of this article shall take effect upon ratification of this article.''.

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