Amendment Expert Warns: Applications are Missing –

by Stuart MacPhail – July, 2020

Gregory Watson, an acknowledged expert on bringing about constitutional amendments, points out that as of June “several Article V Convention resolutions still have not reached the all-important United States Senate and, in the specific case of Nebraska’s 2010 resolution … that particular resolution has not been received by either of the two chambers of Congress.”

In writing to the Article V Caucus, Watson notes the following status of Article V applications adopted in the last ten years by state legislatures:

1 – Nebraska’s 2010 Resolution 538 (a BBA-focused application) by former State Senator Pete Pirsch has not been received by either of the two Houses of Congress.

2 – Utah’s 2015 HJR.7 (a BBA-focused application) by former Utah State Representative Kraig Powell, while received by the US House of Representatives on July 15, 2015, has not been acknowledged as having been received by the US Senate.

3 – New Jersey’s 2015 SCR 132 (a Wolf-PAC application focused on election finance reform) by still-serving State Senator Linda Greenstein, has not been acknowledged as having been received by the US Senate.  The US House has twice acknowledged receiving copies of the resolution..

4 – Louisiana’s 2016 SCR 52 (a Convention of States Project application) by former Louisiana State Senator Dan Claitor, while received by the US House three years belatedly (and in triplicate no less), has not been acknowledged as having been received by the US Senate.

5 – Wyoming’s 2017 HJR 2 (a BBA-focused application) by still-serving Wyoming State Representative Tyler Lindholm was received by the US House on April 3, but there is still no Congressional Record evidence that it has been received by the US Senate.

6 – Utah’s 2019 SJR 9 (a Convention of States Project application) by still-serving Utah State Senator Evan J. Vickers, while received by the US House of Representatives on July 23, 2019, has not been acknowledged as having been received by the US Senate.

A Note to Legislators in the Above States:
After a legislature goes to all the work of adopting an Article V application seeking a convention of states, its staff MUST take the correct steps in communicating that action to Congress.  The Congressional Record is the place to find acknowledgement that such communication (to both Houses of Congress) has taken place.  Such formal acknowledgement is lacking in each of the above cases.

The Article V Caucus has a quick and easy tutorial on The Proper Way to Transmit State-Approved Article V Applications to CongressHERE.

Article V Caucus