Editor’s note: CHN sent this letter to all House of Representatives offices on March 18, 2026.

Dear Representative: 

On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I strongly urge you to vote no on HJ Res 139, the joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States requiring a balanced budget for the Federal Government. This proposal threatens important human needs programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, education, and more – while recklessly paving the way for additional tax breaks that will further increase the federal deficit. CHN opposes constitutional amendments to require a balanced federal budget – and we strongly urge you to reject this reckless proposal in front of you today. 

The Coalition on Human Needs is an alliance of national organizations working together to promote public policies which address the needs of low-income and other vulnerable people. The Coalition’s members include civil rights, religious, labor, and professional organizations, service providers and those concerned with the wellbeing of children, women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Across many issues, our network believes in the importance of investments in human needs – and thus we have many reasons to oppose HJ Res 139 and why nearly 300 organizations, including many of CHN’s members, joined together to oppose a balanced budget amendment back in 2016.   

While a balanced budget amendment might not sound like such a bad idea in theory, it would be disastrous in reality — especially for people with low incomes. This version, and others before, paves the way for fast and deep spending cuts to critical non-defense discretionary (NDD) investments including education, child care and Head Start programs, housing assistance, and more. On top of the historic (and deeply unpopular) cuts to basic needs programs in last year’s budget reconciliation package, if enacted, HJ Res 139 would lead to deep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid along with Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ health services, school meals and other food assistance, and many other mandatory programs.   

By allowing additional tax cuts to be adopted by a simple majority vote while requiring two-thirds from each chamber to support revenue increases, even if the budget was already in deep deficit, HJ Res 139 and similar proposals put basic needs programs at grave risk while paving the way for further tax cuts. We have already seen that the combination of service and tax cuts in HR 1 is resulting in losses for people with low incomes and huge gains for the wealthiest people. The impact of HJ Res 139 would greatly worsen the losses for people in the bottom half of the income distribution, further widening the gap between the rich and everyone else. 

A balanced budget amendment would be devastating in times of economic downturns or emergencies. The federal government would not have the flexibility to respond to natural disasters like the hurricanes, wildfires and floods we’ve seen in recent years. We are deeply concerned about the impact of this balanced budget amendment during recessions or economic downturns. While revenues fall during downturns, federal spending on unemployment insurance (UI) along with SNAP and Medicaid grows – providing critical resources to families and shoring up state and local budgets and the economy as a whole.  

HJ Res 139 is a dangerous proposal that threatens human needs, economic stability, and our long-term fiscal health. Please vote no on this proposal in front of you today and any other similar plans.  

Sincerely yours,

Deborah Weinstein,
Executive Director