Roman Buhler Pushing Congress: Propose Amendments –

By Stuart MacPhail – May 2020

On Tuesday, March 14, Roman Buhler, National Director of the Madison Coalition, hosted a conference call as a progress report on two specific proposed constitutional amendments that he said his group is promoting, plus a third topic that he stressed as needing to be addressed.

While attendance numbers on such calls are hard to determine, it was clear that a large number of state legislators and constitutional activists participated.  Buhler reported that 25 states were represented on the call.

Buhler was calling for support of his organization’s “Regulation Freedom Amendment.”  It is aimed at giving Congress power to approve or reject proposed “major” regulations issued by Executive Branch agencies.  His second proposal, “Keep 9 Amendment,” is a proposed constitutional amendment that would head-off potential “court-packing” by assuring that no future Congress could alter the composition of the Supreme Court simply by deciding the court should have more justices.

Mr. Buhler also spent time talking about the need for what he referred to as a “Fiscal Discipline Amendment” (similar to a Balanced Budget Amendment), but he offered no specific plan for bringing that to fruition.

For years, many Article V activists have regarded Ramon as a bit of a political gadfly.  He seems to show up at every interstate gathering of state legislators, often collaring attendees at events hosted by various Article V groups, to promote his various proposals.  He has never been a proponent of the convention of states approach to proposing amendments.  Rather, he regularly expresses his belief that needed constitutional amendments can/will be proposed by Congress.

This time Buhler claims his two primary proposals have some level of support/endorsement in 29 state legislative chambers (out of 99).  His strategy is to “empower states to force Congress to propose” the organization’s amendments.  His web site indicates that his Regulation Freedom Amendment proposal has endorsements from numerous political groups and leading politicians.  During the call he announced that FreedomWorks “has endorsed that proposal.”  Learn more about that proposal HERE.

Article V Caucus