WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson said Wednesday he is still confident the House of Representatives will pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

The House began debate on the amendment Wednesday and could vote on the measure later today. A two-thirds favorable vote is required since it is a constitutional amendment.

But while Emerson remained confident it would pass, the Cape Girardeau Republican admitted it would not be easy. On Tuesday, the House rejected a Democratic plan that would require the appropriations committees and president to submit balanced budgets phased in over the next few years.

Emerson and other proponents of the constitutional amendment contend a law would be too easy to circumvent.

Under the proposed amendment, Congress could waive the balanced budget requirement with a three-fifths vote of each house.

"I am hopeful we're about to clear the next hurdle in passing a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution," declared Emerson. "The measure is certainly gaining momentum in the Congress, but we won't know for sure until the final votes are cast.

"The American people, including me, are fed up with the tax and spend philosophies of the liberals in government that have gotten us into this mess."

Emerson, who has introduced a balanced budget resolution in every session since coming to Congress in 1981, stressed the amendment is not a substitute for direct action by lawmakers, but rather "an enforcement mechanism."

Emerson added, "We need this deficit reduction tool in order to hold the spend, spend, spend liberals at bay and bring our nation's fiscal house in order."

In 1990, the House fell seven votes short of the two-thirds majority needed on the amendment.