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Article: Balanced Budget Amendment
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT
BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT,
if approved by Congress and ratified by the states, would forbid Congress to appropriate more money than the federal government receives in revenues. This requirement could be waived (in wartime for example) by a three-fifths vote of Congress. The amendment would also require a three-fifths vote to raise taxes. In 1997, during the 105th Congress, the amendment failed by one vote in the Senate, just as it had in the 104th Congress, when Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon, a Republican, voted "No," drawing the wrath of conservatives in the Senate and nationwide. The House of Representatives approved the measure by a ...