II

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 208

To require that any proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United

States to require a balanced budget establish procedures to ensure enforcement before the amendment is submitted to the States.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JANUARY 11 (legislative day, JANUARY 10), 1995

Mr. DASCHLE (for himself and Mr. EXON) introduced the following bill; which

was read twice and referred jointly pursuant to the order of August 4,

1977, to the Committees on the Budget and Governmental Affairs, with

instructions that if one committee reports, the other committee have thirty days to report or be discharged

A BILL

To require that any proposed amendment to the Constitution

of the United States to require a balanced budget establish procedures to ensure enforcement before the amendment is submitted to the States.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Right to Know Act’’.

5 SEC. 2. PROPOSAL OF AMENDMENT.

6 No article proposing a balanced budget amendment

7 to the Constitution shall be submitted to the States for
2

•S 208 RIS

1 ratification in the 104th Congress until the adoption of

2 a concurrent resolution containing the matter described in

3 section 2 of this Act.

4 SEC. 3. CONTENT OF REQUIRED CONCURRENT RESOLU5 TION.

6 (a) CONTENTS.—The concurrent resolution referred

7 to in section 1 shall set forth a budget plan to achieve

8 a balanced budget (that complies with the article of

9 amendment proposed by that section) not later than the

10 first fiscal year required by the article of amendment as

11 follows:

12 (1) a budget for each fiscal year beginning with

13 fiscal year 1996 and ending with that first fiscal

14 year (required by the article of amendment) contain15 ing—

16 (A) aggregate levels of new budget author17 ity, outlays, revenues, and the deficit or sur18 plus;

19 (B) totals of new budget authority and

20 outlays for each major functional category;

21 (C) new budget authority and outlays, on

22 an account-by-account basis, for each account

23 with actual outlays or offsetting receipts of at

24 least $100,000,000 in fiscal year 1994; and
3

•S 208 RIS

1 (D) an allocation of Federal revenues

2 among the major sources of such revenues;

3 (2) a detailed list and description of changes in

4 Federal law (including laws authorizing appropria5 tions or direct spending and tax laws) required to

6 carry out the plan and the effective date of each

7 such change; and

8 (3) reconciliation directives to the appropriate

9 committees of the House of Representatives and

10 Senate instructing them to submit legislative

11 changes to the Committee on the Budget of the

12 House or Senate, as the case may be, to implement

13 the plan set forth in the concurrent resolution.

14 (b) RECONCILIATION.—The directives required by

15 subsection (a)(3) shall be deemed to be directives within

16 the meaning of section 310(a) of the Congressional Budg17 et Act of 1974. Upon receiving all legislative submissions

18 from committees under subsection (a)(3), each Committee

19 on the Budget shall combine all such submissions (without

20 substantive revision) into an omnibus reconciliation bill

21 and report that bill to its House. The procedures set forth

22 in section 310 shall govern the consideration of that rec23 onciliation bill in the House of Representatives and the

24 Senate.
4

•S 208 RIS

1 (c) CBO SCORING.—The budget plan described in

2 subsection (a) shall be based upon Congressional Budget

3 Office economic and technical assumptions and estimates

4 of the spending and revenue effects of the legislative

5 changes described in subsection (a)(2).

Æ