Alaska
“[T]his body makes application and requests that the Congress of the United States call a convention for the sole and exclusive purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would require that, in the absence of a national emergency, the total of all appropriations made by Congress for a fiscal year shall not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year[.]” – Alaska HJR 17 am S (1982)
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.
Alaska HJR 17 am S (1982) is among the seventeen States that articulate the problem of fiscal responsibility with a phrase nearly identical to “the total of all federal appropriations made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year.” There are some slight variations, the biggest being Wyoming referring to “receipts” rather than “revenue.”
HJR 17 am S (1982)
Relating to an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would require that total federal appropriations not exceed total estimated federal revenues in a fiscal year in the absence of a national emergency.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
WHEREAS annually the United States moves more deeply into debt as its expenditures exceed its available revenues and the public debt now exceeds hundreds of billions of dollars; and
WHEREAS annually the federal budget demonstrates the unwillingness or inability of the federal government to spend in conformity with available revenues; and
WHEREAS proper planning, fiscal prudence, and plain good sense require that the federal budget be in balance absent national emergency; and
WHEREAS a continuously unbalanced federal budget except in a national emergency causes continuous and damaging inflation and consequently a severe threat to the political and economic stability of the United States; and
WHEREAS, under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, amendments to the Constitution may be proposed by Congress or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states, Congress shall call a constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing amendments;
BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the Congress of the United States is requested to propose and submit to the states an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would require that within four years after its ratification by the various states, in the absence of a national emergency, the total of all appropriations made by Congress for a fiscal year shall not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED that, alternatively, this body makes application and requests that the Congress of the United States call a convention for the sole and exclusive purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would require that, in the absence of a national emergency, the total of all appropriations made by Congress for a fiscal year shall not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED that if Congress proposes such an amendment to the Constitution this application shall no longer be of any force or effect; and be it;
FURTHER RESOLVED that this application and request shall no longer be of any force or effect if the convention is not limited to the exclusive purpose specified by this resolution.
COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Secretary of the United States Senate; the Clerk of the United States; House of Representatives; to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U, S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U. S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.