US Congress House Joint Resolution 55 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-1)
Status: Introduced on April 9 2019 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2019-05-03 - Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
Pending: House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties 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, and receipts or outlays of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. 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.

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

Rep. Ben McAdams [D-UT]	Rep. Stephanie Murphy [D-FL]	Rep. Ed Case [D-HI]	Rep. Jim Cooper [D-TN]
Rep. Luis Correa [D-CA]	Rep. Charlie Crist [D-FL]	Rep. Joe Cunningham [D-SC]	Rep. Josh Gottheimer [D-NJ]
Rep. Daniel Lipinski [D-IL]	Rep. Kurt Schrader [D-OR]	Rep. Abigail Spanberger [D-VA]	Rep. Tom O'Halleran [D-AZ]
Rep. Jeff Van Drew [R-NJ]

Date	Chamber	Action
2019-05-03	House	Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
2019-04-09	House	Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
2019-04-09	House	Introduced in House

HJR6 (Related) 2019-01-03 - Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
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.
SJR18 (Related) 2019-04-04 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Type	Source
Summary	https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-joint-resolution/55/all-info
Text	https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hjres55/BILLS-116hjres55ih.pdf