Week 8! It's hard to believe that my project is starting to wrap up. Today I went down to the Senate floor, because no bills were being debated in the House. Much of the debate was centred around HCR 2025, which also was pretty controversial when it was in the House. Essentially, what it aims to do is authorize the state to send delegates to an Article V convention to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment (requiring Congress to balance its budget each year) to the Constitution and outlines guidelines and regulations in doing so. An Article V convention, composed of delegates of the states for the purposes of amending the constitution, has never been done before (minus the time we created the original Constitution-you know, that one), so it's been pretty interesting watching legislators debate out all those logistics. Anyways, that was my short day, and I'll leave the video of the discussion if you care to watch below (see if you can spot the quote of the day).
Monday, March 27, 2017
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Hi Mimi. It sounds like you had an interesting experience once again. I have a few quick questions though. What is an Article V Convention? Also, why is different in this circumstance that requires the use of an Article V Convention?
ReplyDeleteHi Alex! An Article V Convention is a convention called by a majority of state legislatures for the purpose of amending the constitution. For every single amendment so far, amendments have gone through Congress (another alternative to passing an amendment), and then having to pass at least 2/3rds of state legislatures to become an official amendment. Article V of the US Constitution outlines an alternative process whereby state legislatures would call a convention, send delegates to convene, and then consider whatever amendment arises from the convention and ratify it with a 2/3rds vote. The founders initially inserted this into the constitution in the spirit of the Constitutional Convention, where they did the exact same thing to make the constitution. They also did this in the case that the national level of government became nonresponsive to the states or if another constitution was needed. This history is exactly why proponents argue we need to call the convention: to pass an amendment Congress won't consider. This is also why opponents are scared of these conventions: because last time we did it, we literally threw out the Articles of Confederation and created a whole new government, something opponents fear may happen again if we call the convention. Like I said, proponents want an Article V convention because they feel that the national government has gotten too out of hand with their spending and needs to be reigned in, and also feel that the national government won't be the ones to limit themselves. Hope this description helps!
DeleteHey Mimi! That sounds very exciting. How does it feel to potentially witness history? Is there a reason that the Article V conventions haven't been called to assemble in the past?
ReplyDeleteHi Kirill! It feels crazy! Literally every day watching all of the legislators pass laws in amazing to see. They haven't called an Article V convention in the past because 1) it is difficult to get 2/3rds of the states to agree on something and be motivated enough to call an Article V convention, and 2) many fear a "runaway convention", that once all of the state delegates convene the whole constitution will become up to grabs and these few delegates will completely uproot the constitution. If you want to read more about it, read my response to Alex's comment as I gave another extensive description there :)
DeleteHi Mimi. Thanks for explaining what an Article V Convention is because I wasn't aware. But now that I am, it's really cool that you got to witness them planning it out. Do you think the delegates will be sent?
ReplyDeleteHi Paru! It will be difficult to say. Right now Arizona is the 30th state to pass this call for the convention, so only a few more states need to do this in order to trigger the convention. At the same time, it seems so far-fetched that the states will use this measure for the first time and amend the constitution since this has literally never been done before. So I guess we'll see?
DeleteAlso--- each of these measure expire in a year, to my understanding, so each state would have to re-pass this year after year until enough states join, so it seems like a difficult task ahead for those who are pushing for this convention. But we'll see!!!!
DeleteHey Mimi! It's pretty cool you got to see something that has never been done before. Why do you think something like this has never happened before? Thanks and good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Aran! This is a great question, but also one that I answered in Kirill's comment! Please scroll up a bit to read about it, because I dont't feel like typing it all again (but thank you for that great question, sorry I'm being lazy)
DeleteHiy Mimi.! I just used wikipedia to read more about Article V conventions, so I don't have any questions about them. Have a nice day!
ReplyDeleteThanks Trey! Sorry I realize that maybe I didn't give that thorough of an explanation there. But great job using the internet! If you want to learn more, read the other comments I have responded too since a lot of people had questions (oops!)
DeleteHey Mimi! Yeah, I can't believe things are starting to come to an end for our projects! Best of luck for the remainder of the final stretch :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Ameya! You too!
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