Application Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution to Propose an Amendment to Require Fiscal Limitations and Accountability for the Legislative and Executive Branches of the National Government
| Model Bill Info | |
|---|---|
| Bill Title | Application Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution to Propose an Amendment to Require Fiscal Limitations and Accountability for the Legislative and Executive Branches of the National Government |
| Date Introduced | July 30, 2021 |
| Type | Model Policy |
| Status | Draft |
| Task Forces | Tax and Fiscal Policy, Federalism and International Relations |
Application Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution to Propose an Amendment to Require Fiscal Limitations and Accountability for the Legislative and Executive Branches of the National Government
Section 1. The state legislature hereby makes an application to Congress, as provided by Article V of the Constitution of the United States of America, to call a convention limited to proposing a package of five interrelated amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America to:
- a. Simplify Federal Taxation by prohibiting inducements, credits, exemptions, deductions, incentives, or preferential rates in any tax law, abolishing the existing Internal Revenue Code, and by establishing a simple structure of tax rates.
- b. Balance Revenues and Expenses by eliminating deficit spending, except in a national emergency and requiring 2/3 votes, providing a Presidential line-item veto, and requiring repayment of deficit expenditures and existing national debt at the rate of at least $500 billion per fiscal year.
- c. Require that all regulations must specifically cite and strictly follow a legislative authority, and regulatory disputes shall be resolved in Administrative Courts of the Judicial Branch.
- d. Social Security, Disability, and Medicare are to be designated Federal trust funds and are to be deposited in Federal Reserve accounts and independently audited annually to assure compliance with federal law and fiduciary responsibilities applicable to private trust and public sector pension funds. They are also to be separately and independently managed by boards of trustees for matters including prudent and diversified investment in a range of investment securities and the determination of payable benefits.
- 1. Congress may appropriate funds to the Trust Funds, however it cannot withdraw funds.
- 2. Treasury debt owing to the trust funds must be repaid at the rate of at least $500 billion per fiscal year before any other federal debt reduction is undertaken.
- e. All federal agencies must comply with generally accepted accounting principles published by Board of the Financial Accounting Foundation and include accrual accounting. Each federal government agency must:
- 1. Be audited annually.
- 2. Publish the annual audits on a publicly accessible website to ensure maximum transparency. An unsatisfactory audit reports trigger a 10% appropriations reduction in the first year and 25% in the second year (and subsequent years) for those accounts continuing to be unsatisfactory.
In each of those five years following ratification, Congress is to pass legislation including a budget and the specific steps to be taken the ensuing year and in years remaining in that five-year period to fully implement provisions of each ratified Amendment.
Section 2. The Secretary of State is hereby directed to transmit copies of this application to the President and Secretary of the Senate of the United States and to the Speaker, Clerk and Judiciary Committee Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, and copies to the members of the said Senate and House of Representatives from this State; also to transmit copies hereof to the presiding officers of each of the legislative houses in the several States, requesting their cooperation.
Section 3. This application shall be considered as covering the same subject matter as the applications from other States to Congress to call a convention limited to proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America and this application shall be aggregated with same for the purpose of attaining the two-thirds of states necessary to require Congress to call a limited convention on this subject, but shall not be aggregated with any other applications on any other subject.
Section 4. This application constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States of America until the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the several states have made applications on the same subject.
