Thanks to Jeff Kilgren, COS Associate Regional Director, for his guidance and input.
The Convention of States Agenda:
1. We are following Article V in our U.S. Constitution, which allows either the States, or the Congress, to initiate the Amendment process to the Constitution. States never have.
2. Through the State Legislatures, both Senate and House of Representatives must pass the COS Resolution. This qualifies the State to be counted among the 34 (2/3 of 50) States required to call a Convention. The Resolution must be nearly identical in each State.
3. Once 34 States pass our Resolution, the U.S. House of Representatives is required by the Constitution to set the time and place for the Convention.
4. Each State sends delegates to the Convention. Each State determines how many delegates they will send. Regardless, each State only gets 1 vote. Each State delegation will decide internally how their State will determine that 1 vote.
5. The Convention’s purpose is limited to drafting, debating, and voting upon proposed Amendments. The final list is composed of those that received a majority vote (26/50). These are still simply Proposed Amendments, not legal Amendments.
6. Each Proposed Amendment must fall within one of three subject areas: 1) impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, 2) limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and 3) limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.
7. Each Proposed Amendment that passes the Convention is then sent back to the 50 States for ratification by the State Legislatures. 38 States (3/4) must ratify any Proposed Amendment for it to become an actual Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Seen in the opposite point-of-view, only 13 States can block or “kill” a Proposed Amendment from becoming part of the Constitution.
High majorities of Americans want term limits on federal officials, want guard rails on Congressional spending and want guard rails on the federal overlords in the Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, Presidential Executive Orders, and so many other unregulated federal powers.
Here are the 19 States that have passed the COS Resolution:
2014: Georgia, Alaska, Florida
2015: Alabama
2016: Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, Louisiana
2017: Arizona, North Dakota, Texas, Missouri
2019: Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi
2022: Wisconsin, Nebraska, West Virginia, South Carolina
2023: Kansas passed majorities in both chambers, but the State has a law that requires a super majority of 60% to pass. This vote will be challenged, ultimately, because the majority vote meets the Article V requirement, making Kansas State 20.
Here are the 7 States that have passed the Resolution in one chamber:
Wyoming, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire.
Here are the 23 States in which Grassroots Volunteers are actively working to pass the COS Resolution in their State Legislature:
Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Hawaii and Vermont.
Proposed Amendments must naturally be clear and popular enough to motivate the people in each State to push their Legislators to ratify them. We must create Amendments that secure our rights, not take rights away (as the 18th Amendment prohibited rights on alcohol trade and required the 21st Amendment to repeal it).
Read, investigate, and research Convention of States. It’s a legal, peaceful process that promotes grassroots engagement, networks concerned citizens, and builds strong bonds that encourage hope instead of the cynicism that can undermine our attempts to restore liberty.
Check out the 2022 Trafalgar Poll results regarding Convention of States.
