The Legislature adjourned “Sine Die” (the end of the session) this past Thursday. I will devote the next few weekly updates to an in-depth look at the bills that passed and failed during this first session of the one hundred and seventh Nebraska legislature. This week, I want to talk about the Convention of States (COS) resolution.

As many know, Article V of the US Constitution provides two different ways to propose amendments to it. Two-thirds of congress may propose an amendment, and so can two-thirds of the states. It requires two-thirds of the states (34) to make identical applications to congress to call the convention. If LR 14 is successful next year, Nebraska will become the sixteenth state to do so.

The COS resolution (LR 14) came to our Government committee. At this time four liberal, four conservative members serve on the committee which makes it politically deadlocked. The intensely political process of staffing committees saw to that when the session first started in January. As LR 14 was stuck in committee on a 4-4 vote, Sen. Halloran invoked the “pull motion” rule. Rarely used, it can “pull” a bill out of committee if it receives twenty-five votes from the senators on the floor.  LR 14 fell two votes short with only twenty-three. Bills and resolutions that fail pull motions are dead then and there. LR 14 stood “indefinitely postponed” (IPP) on the 23rd of April. 

Senator Flood then made a motion to suspend the IPP rules. The motion required thirty votes to pass and that is what it received. This caused LR 14 to rise from the grave. I have never seen a piece of legislation navigate such a difficult path. 

The chief opposition to the COS idea comes from Sen. Morfeld. He believes that were the convention to ever happen, the whole constitution will be re-written by the States. This is a very old myth that is utterly false yet it is heard every time COS is on the agenda. The briefest study of the constitutional convention makes it very clear the delegates in Philadelphia wanted there to be TWO ways for amendments to the constitution to be proposed. I am forced to conclude opponents must trust congress more than they trust the states. 

How can states not be trusted to propose amendments when the constitution requires three-fourths (38) of the states to ratify amendments to the constitution? The states have ratified twenty-seven amendments since our country was founded. 

Next January thirty-three votes will be needed to end the filibuster that is certain to come. Those votes are far from a sure thing at this point. Senators have made a very large investment of political capital on this. The vote-trading that happened so the Convention of States could be back in front of the whole legislature concerns me a great deal. The Senators have got the ball down to the twenty yard line. The legislature has done all it can do on this issue. I believe the people are the only way to get this across the goal line. If you are a COS supporter, it’s time to step up.