Texas 2015 - 84th Regular

Texas House Bill HJR146 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	84R11949 JRJ-F
2	2	By: Peña H.J.R. No. 146
3	3
4	4
5	5	A JOINT RESOLUTION
6	6	applying to Congress to call a convention, to propose an amendment
7	7	to the United States Constitution urging the restoration of free
8	8	and fair elections.
9	9	WHEREAS, Our first president of the United States, George
10	10	Washington, declared: "The basis of our political systems is the
11	11	right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of
12	12	government" (Farewell Address, 1796); and
13	13	WHEREAS, It was the clear intention of the framers of the
14	14	Constitution of the United States that the Congress of the United
15	15	States should be "dependent on the people alone" (James Madison,
16	16	Federalist No. 52) and that dependency has evolved from a
17	17	dependency on the people alone to a dependency on those who
18	18	contribute lavishly and spend excessively in election campaigns or
19	19	via third-party groups; and
20	20	WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the United States
21	21	Constitution declares: "The powers not delegated to the United
22	22	States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
23	23	reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," which,
24	24	until 2010, had consistently been interpreted as allowing the
25	25	several states to establish their own laws governing the financing
26	26	of elections; and
27	27	WHEREAS, Since 1905, with the passage of the Terrell Election
28	28	Law and continuing for the next 105 years, the Texas Legislature has
29	29	consistently exercised its legal authority to mitigate corrupting
30	30	influences in its electoral process by establishing laws governing
31	31	the financing of elections; and
32	32	WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court removed
33	33	restrictions on independent and aggregate spending, effectively
34	34	denying the several states the ability to establish their own laws
35	35	governing the financing of elections and the removal of those
36	36	restrictions has resulted in the undue influence of powerful
37	37	economic forces, which have supplanted the will of the people by
38	38	undermining their ability to choose their political leadership and
39	39	determine the fate of their states and the nation as a whole; and
40	40	WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution included
41	41	the convention method of proposing federal constitutional
42	42	amendments at the urging of the delegates to the 1787
43	43	Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia, so that the
44	44	several states could protect themselves, and their citizens, from
45	45	encroachments of the federal government and preserve our Republic
46	46	in the event that the federal government became unresponsive to the
47	47	will of the American people; and
48	48	WHEREAS, The nation's 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
49	49	affirmed: "Through their state legislatures and without regard to
50	50	the federal government, the people can demand a convention to
51	51	propose amendments that can and will reverse any trends they see as
52	52	fatal to true representative government."; and
53	53	WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution requires
54	54	Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments to the
55	55	constitution on the application of two-thirds of the legislatures
56	56	of the several states, an assurance made abundantly clear by
57	57	Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 85, who noted that: "The words
58	58	of this article are peremptory. The Congress 'shall call a
59	59	convention.' Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion
60	60	of that body. And of consequence, all the declamation about the
61	61	disinclination to a change vanishes in air."; and
62	62	WHEREAS, The legislature perceives the need for an amendments
63	63	convention in order to restore free and fair elections in America by
64	64	reducing the corrupting influence of money in politics and desires
65	65	that said convention be so limited; and
66	66	WHEREAS, The 84th Texas Legislature intends that this joint
67	67	resolution be a continuing application aggregated together with
68	68	similar applications calling for a convention on this subject, such
69	69	as those approved by Vermont legislators (2014 Vermont R454, Joint
70	70	Resolution Senate No. 27, 160 Congressional Record S4331,
71	71	POM-284), by California legislators (2014 California Resolution
72	72	Chapter 77, Assembly Joint Resolution No. 1, 160 Congressional
73	73	Record S5507, POM-320) and by Illinois legislators (2014 Illinois
74	74	Senate Joint Resolution No. 42) and introduced by Montana
75	75	legislators in 2015 (House Joint Resolution No. 3), until such time
76	76	as the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states have
77	77	applied for such a convention and that convention has actually been
78	78	called by Congress; now, therefore, be it
79	79	RESOLVED, That the Texas delegates to said convention be
80	80	composed equally of individuals currently elected to state and
81	81	local office, or be selected by election, in each congressional
82	82	district in Texas, for the purpose of serving as Texas delegates,
83	83	though all individuals elected or appointed to federal office now,
84	84	or in the past, be prohibited from serving as Texas delegates to
85	85	such a convention; and, be it further
86	86	RESOLVED, That the legislature intends to retain the ability
87	87	to restrict or expand the authority of its Texas delegates within
88	88	the limits herein expressed; and, be it further
89	89	RESOLVED, That the 84th Texas Legislature apply to Congress
90	90	to call a convention under Article V of the United States
91	91	Constitution for the limited purpose of proposing an amendment to
92	92	the constitution to urge the restoration of free and fair
93	93	elections; and, be it further
94	94	RESOLVED, That, unless rescinded by a succeeding
95	95	legislature, this application by the 84th Texas Legislature
96	96	constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V
97	97	of the United States Constitution until at least two-thirds of the
98	98	legislatures of the several states have applied to Congress to call
99	99	a convention for the limited purpose of proposing an amendment to
100	100	the constitution to urge the restoration of free and fair
101	101	elections; and, be it further
102	102	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
103	103	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
104	104	the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the
105	105	Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of
106	106	the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this
107	107	resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as an
108	108	application to Congress for a convention under Article V of the
109	109	United States Constitution for the limited purpose of proposing an
110	110	amendment to the constitution to urge the restoration of free and
111	111	fair elections; and, be it further
112	112	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
113	113	copies of this resolution to the secretaries of state and to the
114	114	presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states with
115	115	the request that they join this state in applying to Congress for a
116	116	convention under Article V of the United States Constitution for
117	117	the limited purpose of proposing an amendment to the constitution
118	118	to urge the restoration of free and fair elections.