The Hill News

A group of Republican senators will unveil a long-awaited constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget each fiscal year.

Five GOP senators will unveil their proposal, which calls for a yearly spending cap and a legally-mandated balanced budget, with some exceptions.

Republican Sens. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), John Cornyn (Texas), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Mike Lee (Utah) and Pat Toomey (Utah) at noontime on Thursday, early details of which became available on Wednesday.

The proposed amendment goes well beyond requiring a simple balanced budget each year, though, and would look to enact a series of other fiscal reforms, as well.

Under the amendment, the president would be forced to submit a balanced budget to Congress each year. But Congress would also face certain constraints in its work to pass the budget each year.

The amendment would mandate that total outlays each year could not exceed total receipts by the governme! nt, unless both the House and Senate agree to an excess in outlays by a two-thirds vote. Any tax increase would also be required to pass both houses with the same two-thirds supermajority.

The Republican proposal would also cap spending each fiscal year at 18 percent of gross domestic product, a provision that could also be waived by Congress during a time of war, or by a three-fifths majority of the House and Senate in a time of other military conflict.

Both the House and Senate would also be forced to cobble together a three-fifths majority to authorize an increase in the debt ceiling, as well.

The reforms set for introduction by the Republicans are far more sweeping than simply requiring a balanced budget. They would have the effect, if enacted, of making it much tougher to authorize new spending absent a supermajority in Congress.

Of course, even the most popular of amendments face a long road to ratification. The GOP amen! dment would need to be approved by a two-thirds majority in th! e House and Senate, a tough climb especially since the Senate is controlled by Democrats. Even if lawmakers somehow managed to advance the amendment, three-fourths of the states would still have to ratify it for the amendment to take effect.