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JOINT RESOLUTIONS

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning

Budget of the United States

FOR the purpose of requesting appropriate action by the
Congress, on its own action by consent of two-thirds
of both Houses or on the application of the
legislatures of two—thirds of the several states, to
propose an amendment to the Federal Constitution to
require that the total of all Federal appropriations
may not exceed the total of all estimated Federal
revenues in any fiscal year, with certain
exceptions.

WHEREAS, With each passing year this Nation becomes
more deeply in debt as its expenditures grossly and
repeatedly exceed available revenues so that the public
debt now exceeds hundreds of billions of dollars.

Attempts to limit spending, including impoundment of
funds by the President of the United States, have
resulted in strenuous objections that the responsibility
for appropriations is the constitutional duty of the
Congress.

The annual Federal budget repeatedly demonstrates an
unwillingness or inability of both the legislative and
executive branches of the Federal government to curtail
spending to conform to available revenues.

The unified budget of 304.4 billion dollars for the
current fiscal year does not reflect actual spending
because of the exclusion of special outlays which are not
included in the budget nor subject to the legal public
debt limit.

As reported by US News and World Report on February
25, 1974, of these nonbudgetary outlays in the amount of
15.6 billion dollars, the sum of 12.9 billion dollars
represents funding of essentially private agencies which
provide special service to the federal government.

Knowledgeable planning and fiscal prudence require
that the budget reflect all Federal spending and that the
budget be in balance.

Believing that fiscal irresponsibility at the
Federal level, with the inflation which results from this
policy, is the greatest threat which faces our Nation, we
firmly believe that constitutional restraint is necessary
to bring the fiscal disciplines needed to reverse this
trend.