[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S.J. Res. 35 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. J. RES. 35

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 21, 2010

  Mr. Hatch introduced the following joint resolution; which was read 
          twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


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

    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 7 years after the date of its submission by the Congress:

                              ``Article--

    ``Section 1. Congress shall adopt for each year a budget which 
shall set forth the total receipts and outlays of the United States. No 
budget in which total outlays exceed total receipts shall be adopted 
unless three-fifths of each House of Congress duly sworn and elected 
approve such budget by a rollcall vote directed solely to that subject. 
Congress shall not pass and the President shall not sign any bill which 
would cause the total outlays for any year to exceed the total 
expenditures in the budget for such year.
    ``Section 2. The receipts in any year shall not be retained for use 
of the Treasury in an amount which exceeds as a proportion of the 
national income, that retained for the prior year, unless a bill 
directed solely at approving a specific increase in such proportion has 
been passed by a majority of each House duly sworn and elected and such 
bill has become law.
    ``Section 3. Congress may waive the provisions of sections 1 and 2 
with respect to any single year in which a declaration of war is in 
effect.
    ``Section 4. An increase in Federal taxes may not be adopted unless 
two-thirds of each House of Congress duly sworn and elected approve 
such increase by a rollcall vote directed solely to that subject.
    ``Section 5. If in any fiscal year the percentage of growth of 
Gross Domestic Product is negative, discretionary spending, excluding 
spending for defense and homeland security, in the next fiscal year 
shall not exceed the level of such spending for the preceding fiscal 
year reduced by that percentage of negative growth.
    ``Section 6. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article 
by appropriate legislation.
    ``Section 7. This article shall take effect on the first day of 
January of the second calendar year beginning after the date of 
ratification of this article.''.
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