US Congress Senate Joint Resolution 39 (Prior Session Legislation)

---

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: Introduced on March 30 2017 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2017-03-30 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Pending: Senate Judiciary Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

A joint resolution proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 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 resolution 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 resolution 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. Joe Donnelly [D-IN]	Sen. Heidi Heitkamp [D-ND]	Sen. Jon Tester [D-MT]	Sen. Joe Manchin [D-WV]
Sen. Claire McCaskill [D-MO]

Date	Chamber	Action
2017-03-30	Senate	Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

HJR107 (Related) 2017-06-29 - Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

Type	Source
Summary	https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/39/all-info
Text	https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/sjres39/BILLS-115sjres39is.pdf