User:T.E.Cooper100/Compact For America Submission3

The Compact for America Educational Foundation, Inc. (the "Foundation") is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit corporation which works to educate U.S. citizens and statesmen about the use of interstate compacts to achieve constitutional amendments and other reforms. The Foundation's first initiative is the Compact for a Balanced Budget, an interstate compact agreement that organizes states to propose and ratify a balanced budget and debt limit amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Organization
The Foundation is a national nonprofit educational organization based in Texas that informs the people of the United States, through the experience of educators, scholars and constitutional attorneys who make up the Foundation's board and Council of Scholars, of ways to simplify change in the political system. An interstate compact is the method states use to legally bind themselves to each other to achieve mutual goals and objectives. The Foundation is a separate entity from Compact for America, Inc. which is a 501(c)(4) organization.

Compact for a Balanced Budget
The Compact for a Balanced Budget (CBB) is the Foundation's first initiative. The CBB uses an interstate compact to consolidate the process of proposing and ratifying a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution under the provisions of Article V. The CBB is activated when 38 states have joined.

The CBB contains an Article V application, the proposed amendment, delegate appointments and instructions, convention logistics, the establishment of the Compact Commission, and the legislative ratification of the amendment. The CBB gives states in the Compact a unified voice, coordinates logistics of the amendment process, and oversees the amendment process. The actions of the CBB must be completed by 2021 as a result of an included sunset provision deadline.

In April 2014, Georgia was the first state to pass legislation to join the CBB, followed by Alaska later that same month. Mississippi joined the compact in March 2015, and North Dakota joined in April that same year.

The CBB has gained the support of public figures including George Will, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post, Grover Norquist of the Americans for Taxpayer Reform, George Leef of Forbes.com, Andrew Napolitano, Fox News Channel Senior Judicial Analyst, and Allen B. West of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Concurrent resolution
The actions outlined in the CBB are activated by a congressional concurrent resolution which calls for the Article V convention as described in the CBB, and also selects the state legislature mode of ratification. Eighteen members of the House of Representatives, including primary sponsor Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, have joined in sponsoring House Concurrent Resolution 26 (H.Con.Res.26), the activating resolution. When 38 states join the Compact, the Article V application in the compact becomes effective and the convention will occur approximately two months thereafter.

Compact Commission
The main objective of the Compact Commission is to encourage other states to join the CBB and to have Congress call the Article V convention in accordance with the terms and provisions of the CBB. The initial commissioner slots are filled by the first three states to join the CBB, but commissioners can vote to expand representation. A compact administrator is designated to notify other states and Congress when the Compact is joined by a member state and to keep track of when constitutionally and legally significant triggers have been met. In 2015, the Compact Commission designated the Foundation as the compact administrator. During the Article V convention, the Compact Commission can relocate the meeting to make sure it proceeds in a lawful and orderly fashion under the terms of the CBB. The convention agenda is limited to a 24 hour meeting where the vote will be held to formally propose the pre-drafted Balanced Budget Amendment for ratification.

Balanced Budget Amendment
The Balanced Budget Amendment being presented by the CBB will limit federal spending under a constitutionally imposed debt limit which can only be increased by the majority vote of state legislatures.

Debt is authorized at 105 percent of the outstanding government debt at the time of ratification. When outstanding debt exceeds 98 percent of the debt limit, the President will be required to designate impoundments for expenditures. Congress can override the President's impoundments by designating alternative impoundments for the same or greater amounts. Bills for new or increased general revenue taxes must be passed by two thirds of both houses of Congress unless the bill reduces or eliminates a tax exemption, deduction, or credit, or the bill completely replaces the current income tax system with a national sales tax, which require only simple majority votes.