{"id":24729,"date":"2019-02-01T18:11:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T00:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24729"},"modified":"2019-02-01T18:11:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-02T00:11:14","slug":"convention-of-the-states-proposals-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24729","title":{"rendered":"Convention of the states proposals considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 1 on a resolution to call for a convention of the states, authorized under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Steve Halloran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings, who introduced LR7, said 12 states have passed such a resolution. Congress would be compelled to call a convention of the states if 34 states pass identical resolutions.<\/p>\n

LR7 calls for the convention to:
\n\u2022 impose fiscal restraints on the federal government;
\n\u2022 limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government; and
\n\u2022 impose term limits on members of Congress and federal officials.<\/p>\n

Amendments approved at a convention of the states must then be ratified by 38 states to become binding. That, Halloran said, provides a safeguard against controversial amendments, like repealing the Second Amendment or outlawing abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Article V convention of states operates within the Constitution, as a method to propose amendments to the Constitution, not as an instrument to rewrite the Constitution,\u201d Halloran said. \u201cThe fear of a runaway convention is absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Stephans testified in favor of the resolution. Stephans is a volunteer with Convention of States Project, and said there is much support for a convention among Nebraskans. He cited the ongoing fight over the federal budget as evidence of the need for congressional term limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are tired of the dysfunctional federal government,\u201d Stephans said.<\/p>\n

Steve Riese of Plattsmouth also spoke in favor of the resolution. National debt, he said, is a greater threat to America\u2019s security than the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Russia or China.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fiscal future is bleak and our ability to defend our values comes into question,\u201d Riese said.<\/p>\n

Mark Adamson testified in support of the resolution. Adamson said he\u2019s volunteered with Convention of States Action in the hope that a convention would impose term limits on members of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe founders could never have imagined career politicians,\u201d Adamson said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t believe the founders would have imagined elected officials becoming wealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testifying against the resolution was Matthew Parker of Omaha. A convention is \u201cuntried and untested,\u201d he said, and the rules governing a convention are unclear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no broad legal consensus on how it will proceed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also speaking in opposition to LR7 was Susan Soriente. She agreed with the supporters\u2019 frustrations but said a convention of the states was a poor way to fix the problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid it would go past the three [LR7 proposals],\u201d Soriente said. \u201cI feel this is just a tool to vent frustrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renee Fry of the OpenSky Policy Institute also testified against the resolution. Allowing the federal government to go into debt is sometimes necessary to manage crises, like a recession or a war, Fry said.<\/p>\n

The committee also considered LB451, introduced by Halloran. The bill would require that all delegates to a convention of the states be required to take an oath promising not to vote on any amendment to the U.S. Constitution not previously approved by the Nebraska Legislature.<\/p>\n

Casting an unauthorized vote would be a felony, and that delegate would be disqualified from continued service in the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could very well see a convention of states in the next few years,\u201d Halloran said. \u201cWe must be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon Benson of Convention of States Action testified in favor of the bill. He said momentum is building for a convention of the states, and Nebraska needs to establish rules governing convention delegates.<\/p>\n

Larry Storer of Omaha testified against LB451. Storer said the state does not have the power to decide who represents Nebraska at a convention of the states.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have the right to take that away from us,\u201d Storer said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LR7 or LB451.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 1 on a resolution to call for a convention of the states, authorized under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[178],"class_list":["post-24729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-steve-halloran"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/LR7Halloran2-1-19a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24735,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24729\/revisions\/24735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}