Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide for balanced budgets for the Government.
Summary
What This Bill Does
H.J.Res.6 proposes a constitutional balanced-budget amendment. If ratified, total federal outlays generally could not exceed total receipts, receipts from borrowing would be excluded, debt-principal repayment would be excluded from outlays, and Congress would enforce the article through legislation using budget estimates. The version with local text also requires the President to submit a balanced budget before each fiscal year and lets two-thirds of each chamber authorize a specific excess of outlays over receipts.
Who Benefits and How
Federal taxpayers benefit if the amendment reduces routine deficit financing and slows debt growth. Balanced-budget advocacy organizations benefit because the proposal puts their fiscal rule into constitutional text. Congressional budget committees benefit from explicit authority to enforce the article through estimating and implementation legislation. Future lawmakers benefit from a defined exception process instead of relying only on ordinary chamber budget rules.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Members of Congress must fit spending and revenue decisions within a constitutional outlay limit unless an exception applies. Federal program beneficiaries may face funding pressure if Congress balances by cutting spending. Federal agencies may have less fiscal flexibility during recessions, wars, disasters, or revenue downturns. State legislatures must decide whether to ratify a major change to federal budget authority.
Key Provisions
- Proposes a constitutional limit requiring federal outlays not to exceed receipts.
- Authorizes Congress to enforce the balanced-budget article through implementing legislation.
- Limits ordinary deficit spending unless Congress satisfies the amendment's exception process.
- Moves federal fiscal discipline from ordinary budget procedure into constitutional law.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Proposes a constitutional balanced-budget requirement that would constrain federal deficit spending if ratified by the states.
Key Policy Areas
Budget, Constitutional Amendment
Primary Purpose
Proposes a constitutional balanced-budget requirement that would constrain federal deficit spending if ratified by the states.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal taxpayers
- Balanced-budget advocacy organizations
- Congressional budget committees
- Future lawmakers
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Members of Congress
- Federal program beneficiaries
- Federal agencies
- State legislatures
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Congressional budget committees, State legislatures
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
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