This fifth proposed Constitutional Amendment redefines the budget and appropriations process with the key element being that the appropriations process shall only be used to reauthorize spending for existing programs and that all new programs shall be pass through the 'regular order' process and that there are penalties for not completing these fiscal processes on a specific schedule along with eliminating funding the government by continuing resolutions.
#5 - PROPOSED AMENDMENT to the US CONSTITUTION on the BUDGET and APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS
Section 1. Both Houses of Congress shall complete a budget for each Federal Department and Agency for the next fiscal year and send to the President for his or her signature by May 15th of each year.
Section 2. Should Congress fail to complete the Budgetary Process by the assigned date, members of Congress and their staffs shall remain unpaid until the Budgetary Process is completed and signed by the President. Repayment of lost wages shall not be permitted.
Section 3. The annual funding of Federal Departments and Agencies known as the Appropriations Process shall be to allocate financial resources for existing programs for the following fiscal year and shall not include new programs or initiatives.
Section 4. All new programs and initiatives of the federal government shall be authorized by Congress and approved by the President through the Regular Order Process. Part of that process will be to authorize spending limits sufficient to extend through the current fiscal year and remain within the specific Department or Agencies' budgetary allowance. All future spending limits for said program or initiative shall be allocated during the following year’s Appropriations Process.
Section 5. Should Congress fail to complete the Appropriations process to fund Federal Departments or Agencies by the beginning of the fiscal year, each unfunded Department or Agency shall have their budgets reduced by twenty percent each month from the previous fiscal year’s Appropriation.
Section 6. Should Congress fail to complete the Appropriations process to fund Federal Departments or Agencies by the beginning of the fiscal year, members of Congress and their staffs shall remain unpaid until all necessary Appropriation bills are completed and signed by the President. Repayment of lost wages shall not be permitted.
Section 7. The Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security are the only exception to any reduction stipulated in Section 5 of this Amendment. The resource allocation for those Departments shall remain at one hundred percent of the previous year’s funding.
Section 8. Funding for Federal Departments and Agencies by continuing resolution or similar legislative action shall not be permitted.
Section 9. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an Amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission according to Article V of the United States Constitution.