Bill Text: AZ HCR2022 | 2011 | Fiftieth Legislature 1st Regular | Introduced

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Bill Title: Constitutional convention; federal balanced budget

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-02-02 - Referred to House APPROP Committee [HCR2022 Detail]

Download: Arizona-2011-HCR2022-Introduced.html

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REFERENCE TITLE: constitutional convention; federal balanced budget

 

 

 

 

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fiftieth Legislature

First Regular Session

2011

 

 

HCR 2022

 

Introduced by

Representative Olson

 

 

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 

Applying to the congress of the United States to call a convention for proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that the president submit and that congress adopt a balanced federal budget.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

Whereas, with each passing year this nation becomes deeper in debt as its expenditures grossly and repeatedly exceed available revenues, so that the public debt now exceeds fourteen trillion dollars; and

Whereas, attempts to limit spending, including the impoundment of funds by the President of the United States, have resulted in strenuous assertions that the responsibility for appropriations is the constitutional duty of Congress; and

Whereas, the annual federal budget repeatedly demonstrates the unwillingness or inability of both the legislative and executive branches of the federal government to curtail spending to conform to available revenues; and

Whereas, the unified budget does not reflect actual spending because of the exclusion of special outlays that are not in the budget; and

Whereas, knowledgeable planning and fiscal prudence require that the budget reflect all federal spending and that the budget be in balance; and

Whereas, fiscal irresponsibility at the federal level is one of the greatest economic threats that faces our nation, and constitutional restraint is necessary to bring the fiscal discipline needed to reverse this trend; and

Whereas, Article V of the Constitution of the United States provides authority for a convention to be called by the Congress of the United States for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution on application of two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states.

Therefore

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring:

1.  That, pursuant to article V of the Constitution of the United States, the Legislature of the State of Arizona formally applies to the Congress of the United States to call a convention for the purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, to be ratified by the legislatures or by conventions in three-fourths of the several states, that will require, with certain exceptions, that each fiscal year the President of the United States submit and the Congress of the United States adopt a balanced federal budget.

2.  That if, within ninety days after the legislatures of two-thirds of the states have made application for such a convention, Congress adopts a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States similar in subject matter to the proposed purpose of the convention, this application for a convention is of no force or effect.

3.  That if the convention is not entirely focused on and exclusively limited to the subject matter contemplated by this application or if the United States Supreme Court rules that a convention cannot be limited to the subject contemplated by this application, this application is void.

4.  That this application constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States until at least two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states have made application for an equivalently limited amendments convention.

5.  That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit a copy of this Resolution to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona and the presiding officers of each house of the several state legislatures.