Pennsylvania Senate Committee Passes Federal Constitutional Convention Legislation

On Monday, the Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee approved a resolution calling for a “Convention of States” to amend the U.S. Constitution to check congressional power and federal spending. 

Senators Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro) and Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) authored the measure, which all of the committee’s seven Republicans voted to support and all of the panel’s four Democrats opposed.

Amendments the constitutional convention could consider would be limited under the resolution to new restraints on federal spending, curbs on federal powers, and term limits for federal lawmakers. The two sponsors reasoned that their legislation is necessary because the federal government has become “bloated and oversized.” Last year, the federal government spent $6.82 trillion, a figure amounting to 30 percent of the total gross domestic product.

“I am sure many of us frequently hear constituents expressing a desire for someone to ‘do something about that mess in Washington,’” Sen. Dush wrote in a memorandum on the legislation. “This resolution reflects our willingness as state legislators to exercise our proper role in protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States by using the constitutional ‘check’ that was provided to us by our Founding Fathers to exercise control over a runaway federal government.”… (Excerpt from the Pennsylvania Daily Star)