26. The Gramm-Rudman- Hollings Act, enacted by Congress in 1985, sought to use automatic budget cuts to reduce the federal budget deficit annually until it was eliminated. I was a member of neither the US House of Representatives nor the US Senate in 1985 and thus did not vote on this bill. The bill was ultimately declared unconstitutional and was scrapped a year after its passage. There have been repeated calls for a balanced budget and line-item veto amendments to the Constitution, but no such measures have been passed as yet.