Inside Report (3)

The balanced budget amendment is down, but not out.

Outmaneuvered and outvoted in the US House of Representatives last October after having won in the Senate, the amendment's backers will reintroduce it next year. Economist Milton Friedman and Lewis K. Uhler, president of the National Tax-Limitation Committee, will announce the new drive within a few days. Nobel laureate Friedman and Mr. Uhler, a Loomis, Calif., businessman, are co-authors of the amendment, which would forbid Congress to spend in excess of anticipated revenues.

Only one significant change will be made in the new amendment: A two-thirds majority of House and Senate - not two-fifths as provided in the defeated version - would be required to exceed the limit.

Despite warnings that members of Congress who voted against the amendment would be held accountable by the voters on Nov. 2, the balanced budget proposal did not emerge as a campaign issue.

However, proponents say that the huge deficit forecast for fiscal 1983 (ending Sept. 30, 1983) will create new favorable, interest in the amendment.m