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HJRES2Referred to Committee

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

Share:
Introduced
In Committee
3
Passed One Chamber
4
Passed Both
5
Signed into Law
119th
Congress
2025-01-03
Introduced
0
Cosponsors
HJRES
ⓘ
Type

Sponsor

Andy Biggs
Andy Biggs
Republican · AZ · Representative
Votes with party: 86.8% (529 recorded votes)

Full profile: /officials/B001302

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

Cosponsors (0)

Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.

No cosponsors on record. Bills can pass without cosponsors — this often means the sponsor introduced the bill alone, either because it's a messaging bill, a chairman's mark, or simply early in the legislative cycle.

Latest Action

The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

2025-01-03

Source: Congress.gov

Plain-English Summary

This proposal would add a new amendment to the Constitution requiring the federal government to balance its budget each year, meaning it cannot spend more money than it collects in taxes and revenue. The amendment would force Congress to make difficult choices about spending on programs like Social Security, Medicare, defense, and infrastructure, since they would need to either cut spending or raise taxes to avoid running a deficit. Supporters argue this would prevent excessive government debt, while critics worry it could force harmful cuts to important programs during economic downturns when the government typically needs to spend more.

AI-assisted summary generated from the official bill metadata (title, subjects, actions) sourced from Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed. Always verify against the official text linked below.

Subjects

Economics and Public Finance

Full Bill Text

Verbatim text published on Congress.gov via GovInfo. Use Cmd+F / Ctrl+F to search within this excerpt.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.J. Res. 2 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. J. RES. 2 Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 3, 2025 Mr. Biggs of Arizona submitted the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States: ``Article-- ``Section 1. Total outlays for any fiscal year shall not exceed total receipts for that fiscal year. ``Section 2. The limit on the debt of the United States held by the public shall not be increased. ``Section 3. No bill to increase revenue shall become law unless approved by two-thirds of the whole number of each House by a rollcall vote.''. <all>
Open clean-text viewRead on Congress.gov →

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