Aides: House will take up balanced-budget amendment

WASHINGTON—The House will vote next week on a balanced- budget amendment authored by Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, GOP aides said Thursday.

The measure would bar Congress from spending more than the government takes in each year, unless three-fifths of each chamber voted to allow excess outlays. It would also require a three-fifths majority to raise the debt limit, a high bar for one of the most unpopular votes lawmakers take every few years.

Lawmakers will consider the Goodlatte proposal as they return from a two-week recess, where many Republicans got an earful from constituents about the $1.3 trillion spending package Congress passed right before the break, one aide said.

The official floor schedule from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has not yet been released.

Taking up the amendment is largely seen as a way for members to show constituents they still care about deficits after Congress passed multiple pieces of budget-busting legislation in the last year. That includes a tax code overhaul projected to add $1.1 trillion to annual deficits over the next decade and a budget agreement expected to cost $320 billion during that time frame, not counting interest payments on the increased debt.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan had also promised conservative House members, namely the Republican Study Committee, a balanced-budget amendment vote in exchange for their support for a budget resolution that was critical for Republicans to pass their tax overhaul.

A vote on some version of a balanced-budget amendment had previously been expected sometime in April.

Many Democrats and a few Republicans have panned the move as a face-saving gimmick. GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who voted for the tax cuts but against the spending deal, wrote on Twitter, “Republicans control the House, Senate and White House. If we were serious about balancing the budget, we would do it. But instead of doing the real work, some will push this symbolic measure so they can feel good when they go home to face voters.”

Under the Goodlatte proposal, repayments of principal owed on U.S. debt securities would not be counted against outlays, and the balanced-budget requirement could be waived during wartime. No exceptions are provided for emergency economic scenarios, however, such as the recession last decade that spurred massive government stimulus packages and drove up huge annual budget deficits.

The resolution faces steep odds of being adopted, as two-thirds of each chamber is needed to approve any amendment to the Constitution. And if both chambers adopted the resolution, it would still need to be ratified by threefourths of the states.

The legislation allows seven years for states to do so, and the balanced-budget requirement wouldn’t take effect until five years after ratification.