US Congress Senate Joint Resolution 18 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: Introduced on April 4 2019 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2019-04-04 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Pending: Senate Judiciary Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

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, receipts or outlays of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, and outlays relating to a natural disaster if the law providing the funds explicitly exempts the funds from the requirement and is agreed to by a majority of each chamber of Congress. The amendment requires the President to annually submit to Congress a budget in which total outlays do not exceed total receipts. The amendment specifies exceptions to the requirements if a declaration of war is in effect, the United States is engaged in military conflict that causes an imminent and serious military threat to national security, economic growth is less than 0%, or the unemployment rate is more than 7%. 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.

A joint resolution proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Sen. Jon Tester [D-MT]

Sen. Joe Manchin [D-WV]

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema [I-AZ]

Date	Chamber	Action
2019-04-04	Senate	Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

HJR11 (Related) 2019-01-03 - Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
HJR22 (Related) 2019-01-08 - Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
HJR55 (Related) 2019-05-03 - Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.

Type	Source
Summary	https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/18/all-info
Text	https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/sjres18/BILLS-116sjres18is.pdf