HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 4

BY  PETTENGILL, DE BOEF, ALONS, SODERBERG, WINDSCHITL, WATTS, SCHULTE, SWEENEY, SANDS, KOESTER, KAUFMANN, SCHULTZ, and HELLAND

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

A Joint Resolution requesting the Congress of the United States to call a constitutional convention pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States in order to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States permitting the repeal of any federal law or regulation by a vote of two-thirds of state legislatures.

   WHEREAS, Article I of the Constitution of the United States begins “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States”; and
   WHEREAS, the Congress has exceeded the legislative powers granted in the Constitution of the United States as described in this Resolution, thereby encroaching on the powers that are “reserved to the states respectively, or to the people” as the Tenth Amendment affirms and the rights “retained by the people” to which the Ninth Amendment refers; and
   WHEREAS, this encroachment includes the accumulation of federal debt, which combined with interest represents a future tax, and is of such great proportion that responsibility for its payments will be passed to future, unborn generations of Americans to assume without their consent, thereby disparaging their rights; and
   WHEREAS, this encroachment also includes compelling state and local governments to comply with federal laws and regulations without accompanying funding for such mandates; and
   WHEREAS, in Federalist No. 85, Alexander Hamilton wrote in reference to Article V of the Constitution of the United States and the calling of a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments that, “We may safely rely on the disposition of the State legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of national authority”; and
   WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States should be amended in order to halt federal encroachment and restore a proper balance between the powers of Congress and those of the several states, and to prevent the denial or disparagement of the rights retained by the people; NOW THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

   That the State of Iowa hereby applies and makes application to the Congress of the United States to call a constitutional convention pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States for the limited purpose of proposing a constitutional amendment that permits the repeal of any federal law or regulation by vote of two-thirds of the state legislatures, and the Iowa delegation to such convention, when called, shall propose the following amendment: “Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed”; and

   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Resolution is revoked and withdrawn, nullified, and superseded to the same effect as if it had never been passed, and retroactive to the date of passage, if it is used for the purpose of calling a constitutional convention or used in support of conducting a constitutional convention to amend the Constitution of the United States for any purpose other than consideration of the amendment proposed in this Resolution; and
   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the State of Iowa reserves the right to add future amendments as the legislature deems warranted to this application; and
   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that delegates to such convention, when called, be selected according to procedures established by the legislatures of the several states; and
   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Secretary of State shall transmit certified copies of this Joint Resolution to the Speaker and Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the President and Secretary of the United States Senate, and each member of the Iowa delegation to the Congress so that they may be apprised of the sense of the Iowa General Assembly in this matter.
EXPLANATION
   This joint resolution constitutes an application to the Congress of the United States from the State of Iowa through the Iowa General Assembly, as required by Article V of the Constitution of the United States, calling upon Congress to convene a constitutional convention for the purpose of considering a United States constitutional amendment to allow the several states to repeal any federal law or regulation by approval of two-thirds of the state legislatures.
   The resolution stipulates the retroactive withdrawal of this application should a convention be summoned for any purpose other than for the proposed amendment.
   Similar resolutions would need to be approved by two-thirds of the states for the constitutional convention to be called to propose the United States constitutional amendment set out in this resolution. Three-fourths of the states would need to ratify the constitutional amendment for the amendment to become part of the United States Constitution.