First Regular Session

Sixty-second General Assembly

LLS NO. R99­0847.01 Jason Gelender

STATE OF COLORADO

BY REPRESENTATIVES Pfiffner, Berry, Clapp, Decker, Fairbank, Gotlieb, Hoppe, King, Lawrence, Lee, McElhany, McKay, Nuñez, Scott, Smith, Spradley, Stengel, Swenson, Taylor, Tool, Webster, Williams, T., Witwer; also Senators Arnold, Andrews, Chlouber, Congrove, Dennis, Epps, Evans, Hillman, Lacy, Lamborn, Musgrave, Owen, Powers, Sullivant, Wham

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 99-1016

CONCERNING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S SUPPORT FOR FEDERAL LEGISLATION THAT WOULD REQUIRE A BALANCED FEDERAL BUDGET AND THE REPAYMENT OF THE NATIONAL DEBT.

WHEREAS, The federal government accumulated a seventy­billion­dollar budget surplus in 1998, the first surplus since 1969, and is considering policies for using the 1998 surplus and expected surpluses for 1999 and future years; and

WHEREAS, The federal government has amassed a national debt of more than five trillion seven hundred billion dollars ($5,700,000,000,000), and in 1999 federal tax dollars will be used to pay three hundred fifty­seven billion dollars ($357,000,000,000) in interest on the national debt; and

WHEREAS, The costs of servicing the national debt have become an increasingly large portion of the federal budget, rising from under ten percent of the budget in 1978 to twenty­two percent of the budget in 1997; and

WHEREAS, Paying down the national debt will relieve future generations of the burden of paying the costs of servicing the national debt; and

WHEREAS, Paying down the national debt does not exclude the use of federal moneys for tax relief or for saving social security for future generations; and

WHEREAS, Paying down the national debt will foster economic growth and stability; and

WHEREAS, The American Debt Repayment Act, which provides for budgetary reform by requiring a balanced federal budget for each year beginning with federal fiscal year 2000 and requiring the repayment of the entire national debt by the end of federal fiscal year 2029, has been introduced in both houses of the United States Congress; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty­second General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the Senate concurring herein:

(1)  That we, the members of the General Assembly, support the objectives of the American Debt Repayment Act to pay down the national debt and maintain a balanced federal budget; and

(2)  That we, the members of the General Assembly, strongly urge the United States Congress to commit to a plan to repay the national debt before approving a budget resolution.

Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Resolution be sent to each member of Colorado's congressional delegation.