An Enforceable Balanced-Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution Section 1: One or more annual budget bill or bills shall

be introduced on the first business day of the Congress each calendar year, to cover a fiscal year for which the Congress shall set the starting and ending dates. When a change of President happens because of a regularly scheduled election, this budget bill or these budget bills shall not be introduced until the business day after the President's inauguration. Section 2: An annual budget bill that meets all requirements in this Article shall become law no later than the fourteenth calendar day after the introduction of the first budget bill. The Congress shall amend procedures as necessary to ensure open and thorough deliberation within this period of time. If this budget bill should not be returned by the President to the Congress within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to the President, or by the fourteenth calendar day after the introduction of the first budget bill, whichever day falls sooner, this budget bill shall be a law, in like manner as if the President had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. Section 3: In the event that this budget bill should not become law by that date, then a competitive, general, recall election shall be held against all members of both Houses of the Congress in their respective districts and states, and against the President and the Vice-President, on the fourteenth calendar day after the missed deadline. The states shall adjust their procedures for elections as necessary to conform to this Article. Section 3a: Non-incumbent candidates who are qualified for the respective offices shall be allowed to challenge the incumbents in this election. In order for an incumbent to be replaced, the electorate would have to recall the incumbent from office by majority vote and choose a non-incumbent candidate, if one is on the ballot, by majority vote, all on the same ballot. In the event that no candidate should challenge a particular incumbent officer in this election, the incumbent shall still be subject to being recalled from office by this election and replaced by the other established procedures for replacing the holder of that office. Replacement officers shall complete the respective terms of office of the recalled incumbents. Section 3b:

The schedule for the required actions after this election shall go as follows: (1) The Congress with its membership defined by this election shall convene one week after the election, as shall the Electoral College. (2) The Electoral College shall meet and complete its business during one day only. (3) On the next business day, the Congress shall take any and all remaining action necessary for the election and certification of the President and Vice President. (4) On the business day after that, the President and Vice President shall be inaugurated. (5) On the business day after that, the budget-writing process shall begin again with the same requirements and time schedule. Section 4: With the exception of the relationship or relationships between the United States Treasury and any entity or entities to which the Congress might have delegated the powers to create money and regulate its value, the lending and borrowing of funds for any purpose whether non-emergency or emergency between entities that are chartered by this Constitution or chartered by the Congress to be controlled in part or in whole by the Congress, the President or the Supreme Court, shall cease and henceforth be forbidden, starting with the first budget law after the ratification of this Article. All such outstanding loans from before that time shall be honored and repaid in due course. The Congress shall have the power to appropriate funds directly for emergency purposes from any entities that are chartered that are chartered by this Constitution or chartered by the Congress to be controlled in part or in whole by the Congress, the President or the Supreme Court, the President or the Supreme Court, including any entity or entities that might be chartered to create and regulate the value of money. The charters of entities that the Congress has chartered shall be amended by the Congress as needed to conform to this Article before the start of the first fiscal year after this Article is ratified. Section 5: The Congress may choose whether or not to enact, maintain or cancel any federal guarantees on the specific debts of other entities or persons, and the Congress may choose whether or not to delegate this power by chartering any entity or entities for it. Before the start of the first fiscal year after the ratification of this Article, the charters of any and all entities to which the Congress has delegated the power to extend federal guarantees, if any such charters should be in force, shall be amended by the Congress to include proportional cash or cash equivalent reserve requirements for these existing and future guarantees and provide for any portion of the reserves that the Congress might choose the United States Treasury to provide. The Congress may set these reserve proportions at any point between one half of one percent and one hundred percent. Only the Congress may amend

these proportions. Section 6: The President may order the Head of the Treasury, and any inferior officers of the Treasury to whom the Head delegates the task, to arrange the means to repay in full a certain amount of the federal public debt earlier than originally contracted, to negotiate these agreements by auction or any other efficient and publicly visible means, and to execute these agreements. The Head of the Treasury, or an inferior officer to whom this Head might delegate the task, shall on each business day report the total of the following: (a) the total of cash or cash equivalent funds existing in the Treasury including any reserved amounts; (b) the sum of all outstanding public federal debts and their payment schedules for interest and principal, labeling any scheduled early payments; (c) the sum of all outstanding internal federal debts and their schedules of interest payment and principal repayment; (d) the sum of all known new and continuing guarantees by all entities that are chartered to be controlled in part or in whole by the Congress, the President or the Supreme Court and are allowed to extend guarantees; (e) any reserve funds allocated for those guarantees and the names of the sources of these reserve funds; (f) and the sum of all other new and continuing projected federal financial obligations. Section 7: The budget law for a fiscal year shall include at least the following requirements, make at least the following projections, and set at least the following minimum and maximum limits: Section 7a: The sum total of funds existing in the Treasury at the start of the fiscal year shall be required, both liquid and lent out to any parties inside and outside the federal government, with any designations for restricted purposes, and with no more secrecy in labels than necessary for national security. Nonetheless, the total existing amount of funds for secret items shall be required. The total of federal revenues in the fiscal year, from all sources, including any designations for restricted purposes, shall be projected. The total of outstanding federal public debt at the start of the fiscal year, with the interest to be paid on it during the year, and the total of outstanding debt within the federal government at the start of the fiscal year, with the interest to be paid on it during the year, shall be projected. The total of continuing federal guarantees, of those guarantees that are expected to become obligations, and of other federal financial obligations at the start of the fiscal year, and any allocation or lack of allocation of reserved funds for them, shall be projected.

Section 7b: The amounts that the budget law requires to exist shall be made in fact to exist on that day, not by any borrowing closer than thirty days to that day, and not by the creation of any new amount of money closer than thirty days to that day. Section 7c: The budget law shall set minimum annual limits for each of the following three items at the amount of at least one dollar, including both principal and interest to be paid, and no maximum limits shall be set for these: (1) the total of payments of the federal public debt; (2) the total of payments of debts within the federal government; (3) the total of payments of any federal guarantees that are projected to become payable obligations during the fiscal year. Section 7d: The minimum total of any allocations of reserved funds during the fiscal year for federal guarantees shall be set at an amount greater than one dollar if any such guarantees or obligations exist or are projected to exist, and no maximum allocation of reserved funds shall be set. The maximum amounts of all other federal expenditures during the fiscal year shall be set, and no minimum amounts for them shall be set, and with no more secrecy in labels than necessary for national security. Nonetheless, the total maximum amounts permitted for secret items shall be revealed. Section 7e: The total of funds in the Treasury to remain at the end of the fiscal year, if any, no matter how they may be designated for restricted purposes, shall be required, and with no more secrecy in labels than necessary for national security. Nonetheless, the total to remain for secret items, if any, shall be required. The maximum limit of outstanding federal public debt and of debt between federal agencies and programs remaining at the end of the fiscal year shall be set. The maximum totals of outstanding federal guarantees and of known future federal obligations remaining at the end of the fiscal year shall be set, along with any allocation of reserved funds for them. Section 8: When any item at any level of the federal government should be fulfilled and completed with some of the allotted funds for it remaining, the unspent funds shall be disposed in the following order: (a) The authority over those unspent funds shall pass immediately that day from the officer who has had the closest authority over expenditures for that item to the Head of the same federal Department, with direct and immediate notice from that inferior officer to that Department Head. (b) If the Treasury's daily report according to this Article shows that the federal government must make any payments for interest service, principal, or

both in the remainder of the fiscal year, any Department Heads who shall have received these notices of surrender of authority over unspent funds from inferior officers shall on the day of receipt of these notices surrender the authority over these funds entirely to the Head of the Treasury, even if the total of the debtrelated payments should be less than the amount of unspent funds. (b)(1) The Head of the Treasury, or a Treasury officer to whom the task is delegated, shall by the end of the next business day allocate these unspent funds toward debt-related payments for the remainder of the fiscal year. (b)(2) If, after this allocation in the Treasury, any unspent funds remain, the Head of the Treasury shall by the end of the following business day return authority over them in proper proportion to the respective Department Heads who had surrendered authority over them. (c) If the Treasury's daily report according to this Article shows that the federal government shall not make any interest service payments, principal repayments or installment payments in the remainder of the fiscal year, the Department Heads shall not surrender authority over unspent funds to the Head of the Treasury. (d) After the requirements of this Section have been satisfied, the Department Heads, under the direction of the President, shall allocate all unspent funds under their authority to other unfulfilled or incomplete items in the budgets of their respective Departments. Section 9: Both the budget law and actual government operations shall keep all federal revenues in equal balance with expenditures or in surplus to expenditures on the first and last business days of each calendar quarter, except in an emergency as defined within this Article, in which case the Congress and the President shall act as allowed within this Article and this Constitution. This section shall come into force at the end of the third fiscal year after this Article is ratified, or on the last day of the calendar quarter in which this balance is achieved, whichever happens sooner. Section 10: Starting in the first fiscal year after the ratification of this article, the following items at the end of the each calendar quarter shall amount in fact to at least one dollar less than those at the start of the calendar quarter: all outstanding federal debts and all known federal financial obligations exceeding the respective restricted funds or respective proportion of reserved funds for them. Section 11: In the event of an emergency in national public safety or national security, the budget law currently in force may be modified in part or in whole to allow federal expenditures to exceed federal revenues as the Congress and the President may enact by due process. Such an emergency measure shall have a clear and credible plan for the financing, termination and ultimate repayment.