Tennessee
“That pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States, application is hereby made to the United States Congress to call a convention for the purpose of considering and proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that, in the absence of a national emergency, the total of all federal appropriations made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of the estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year, such amendment to read substantially as follows . . . .” – Tennessee HJR 22 (1977)
Representative Application
For each of the 40 States, one representative application has been highlighted. An explanation is provided as to why this application should be aggregated toward the total calling for a convention for proposing amendments. Additional applications from the State, if any, are also included.
Tennessee HJR 22 (1977) is among three states that include specifically worded amendment language but also say that the amendment should read “substantially” as their example shows, not “exactly” showing that the specific text is not intended to be a strict restriction, but counted together with other applications that articulate the same problem, as confirmed by a Congressional Report and the Congressional Research Service. These three all articulate the problem of fiscal responsibility with a sentence nearly identical to “The total of all Federal appropriations made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of the estimated Federal revenues for that fiscal year” followed by some method of making an exception, such as for national emergencies.
HJR 22 (1977)
A RESOLUTION to make application to the United States Congress to call a constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that the total of all federal appropriations may not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenues in any fiscal year, with a certain exception.
WHEREAS, each year this nation becomes more deeply in debt as its expenditures grossly and repeatedly exceed the available revenues to that the legal public debt limit has exceeded 437 billion dollars; and
WHEREAS, 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; and
WHEREAS, nonetheless, the annual budget repeatedly demonstrates an unwillingness or inability to curtail spending to conform to available revenues; and
WHEREAS, the federal budget never reflects actual spending because of the exclusion of special outlays which are neither included in the budget nor subject to the legal debt limit; and
WHEREAS, knowledgeable planning requires that the budget reflect all federal spending that the budget be in balance; and
WHEREAS, 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 a constitutional restraint is necessary to bring the fiscal discipline needed to reverse this trend; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE CONCURRING, That pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States, application is hereby made to the United States Congress to call a convention for the purpose of consideration and proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that, in the absence of a national emergency, the total of all federal appropriations made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of the estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year, such amendment to read substantially as follows:
The total of all federal appropriations made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of the estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year; and this prohibition extends to all federal appropriations and all estimated federal revenues without exception. The President in submitting budgetary requests and the Congress in enacting appropriation bills shall comply with this article. If the President proclaims a national emergency, suspending the requirement that the total of all federal appropriations not exceeding the total estimated federal revenues for a fiscal year, and two-thirds (2/3) of all members elected to each house of the Congress so determine by joint resolution, the total of all federal appropriations may exceed the total estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this application shall constitute a continuing application for such convention under Article V of the Constitution of the United States until the legislatures of two-thirds (2/3) of the several states shall have made like applications and such convention shall have been called and held in conformity therewith, unless the Congress itself proposes such amendment within the time and the manner herein provided.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That proposal of such amendment by the Congress and its submission for ratification to the legislatures of the several states substantially in the form of the article hereinabove specifically set forth, at any time prior to sixty (60) days after the legislatures of two-thirds (2/3) of the several states shall have made application for such convention, shall render such convention unnecessary and the same shall not be held. Otherwise, such convention shall be called and held in conformity with such applications.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That as this application under Article V of the Constitution of the United States is the exercise of a fundamental power of the sovereign states under the Constitution of the United States, it is requested that receipt of this application by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States be officially noted and duly entered upon their respective records, and that the full context of this resolution be published in the official publication of both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted forthwith to the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, to each Senator and Representative in Congress from this state, and to each house of the legislature and to the Secretary of State of each of the several states.
ADOPTED: March 24, 1977
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SPEAKER OF THE SENATE
APPROVED this 30th day of March, 1977
GOVERNOR