House Panel To Consider State Amendments, Votes For Two Federal Ones

State legislators hope to whittle down the list of proposed constitutional amendments from about 40 to 10-12 next week, the chairman of the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee said Friday after his committee advanced two bills meant to amend the U.S. Constitution.

Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, said after the meeting that his committee will meet perhaps twice a day next week to reduce the list of proposed amendments to five or six. The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee also will be working through the amendments, he said. The committees jointly will meet the following week to reduce the list further, ultimately leading to the three that can be referred to voters.

“What we want to do is come into joint committee with a maximum of 10 to 12 to consider,” he said.

The committee meanwhile voted to advance two bills that would amend the U.S. Constitution through a never-before-used, states-led process spelled out in Article V of that document. If two-thirds of the states, or 34, apply for a convention, Congress can issue a call. The resulting amendments would have to be approved by three-fourths of the states, or 38.

The committee voted to advance House Bill 1006 by Bell, in which Arkansas would add its name to the Compact for a Balanced Budget. The Compact would specify the exact wording of a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the goal being to reach 38 states no later than July 4, 2017.

Nick Dranias, president and executive director of the Compact for America Educational Foundation, said Alaska and Georgia have joined the compact. Counting those two, legislative action has begun in a total of 12 states.

“If we don’t start moving on fixing the national debt, it’s soon going to be too late,” Dranias said. “This amendment applies a tourniquet, and we can’t allow the blood to all rush out before we apply the tourniquet.”

Bell said Arkansas has called for an Article V balanced budget amendment at least four times previously over the last “100-odd years.”

The bill passed 14-4, with Reps. John Walker, D-Little Rock; Stephen Magie, D-Conway; Eddie Armstrong, D-North Little Rock; and Camille Bennett, D-Lonoke, voting no.

During the debate, Bennett asked Bell why fiscal matters couldn’t be addressed by members of Congress who campaigned about the federal government’s debt problems. Bell replied that Congress has “proven that they don’t follow through” and that legislative bodies have difficulty limiting their own power. The Article V provision was placed in the Constitution to offer a remedy if Congress refuses to listen to popular will, he said.

“This is exactly the moment in time that the founders put that in the U.S. Constitution for,” he said.

The panel also voted to advance House Joint Resolution 1003 by Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, that would allow Arkansas to join the Convention of the States. Like the Compact for a Balanced Budget, the Convention would allow states to call a convention, but the topic is more broadly defined as potentially imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government, limiting its power, and imposing term limits. Florida, Georgia and Alaska have already passed resolutions.

That bill passed 12-5, with the four opponents of the Compact for a Balanced Budget again voting no and joined by Rep. Trevor Drown, R-Dover, and Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, D-Warren.

The panel did not approve another Convention of the States resolution, HJR 1001 by Rep. Douglas House, R-North Little Rock, that would have called the convention without setting boundaries, as Ballinger’s does. House argued that Congress would not call for any convention that specifically limited its power.