Bill Text: GA SR766 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Comm Sub

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: U.S. Congress; urged to adopt/submit to states a balanced budget amendment to U.S. Constitution and balance current budget

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 6-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-03-13 - House Second Readers [SR766 Detail]

Download: Georgia-2011-SR766-Comm_Sub.html

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12 LC 34 3372S

The Senate Government Oversight Committee offered the following substitute to SR 766:

A RESOLUTION

Urging the United States Congress to adopt and to submit to the states a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution and to balance our current budget; and for other purposes.

WHEREAS, the gravity of federal debt and federal obligations was established early in American history with deficits occurring only in relation to extraordinary circumstances, such as war; and

WHEREAS, for much of the 20th century and into the 21st, the United States has operated on a budget deficit, including the 2010 budget year which surpassed an astounding $1.3 trillion; and

WHEREAS, the federal debt is greater than $16 trillion, a sum that if shared equally by each person in America would be a burden of over $45,000.00 per person, and yet the federal government continues to accrue debt; and

WHEREAS, the higher the deficit, the more the government must spend on paying interest on the debt; and

WHEREAS, compounding the debt problem is the use of deficit spending, which becomes a responsibility for future generations of Americans to assume without their consent; and

WHEREAS, Congress has attempted to set budgetary restraints for itself in the form of a balanced budget amendment, which won wide support in 1995, failing by only one vote in the United States Senate; and

WHEREAS, many states have previously requested that Congress propose a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget; and

WHEREAS, the growing burden of public debt is a threat to this nation's economic health, and action must be taken to restore fiscal responsibility; and

WHEREAS, a balanced budget amendment would require the federal government not to spend more than it receives in revenues and compel lawmakers to carefully consider choices about spending and taxes; and

WHEREAS, by encouraging spending control and discouraging deficit spending, a balanced budget amendment will help put this nation on the path to lasting prosperity; and

WHEREAS, in the meantime, Congress should take the appropriate steps to adopt for the current year and subsequent fiscal years a balanced budget so that the nation will live within its means and thereby allow us to begin to reduce our massive accumulation of debt.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY that the members of this body hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to propose and submit to the states for ratification an amendment to the United States Constitution providing that, except during a war declared by the Congress of the United States pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution or other national emergency, the total of all federal appropriations for a fiscal year may not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenue for that fiscal year and also providing for a spending limitation.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the members of this body respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to begin adopting balanced budgets starting with this fiscal year.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate is authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the Georgia congressional delegation with a request that this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.