BOISE, ID – The Idaho House of Representatives on Friday narrowly passed a resolution that calls for a never-before-used method of amending the U.S. Constitution to balance the federal budget.
Debate between Idaho lawmakers largely centered around whether a constitutional convention would be a runaway process that risks upending the entire U.S. Constitution. The proposal, House Concurrent Resolution 25, proposes a constitutional convention for a federal balanced budget amendment.
The Idaho House passed the resolution on a 36-34 vote Friday, with dozens of Republicans joining all nine House Democrats in opposition.
Past attempts at getting the Idaho Legislature to call for a constitutional convention failed. The Idaho Republican Party has opposed calls for the state to apply to a constitutional convention.
Rep. John Shirts, a Republican from Weiser who’s cosponsoring the resolution, argues that the intent isn’t to actually call a convention – but to threaten one to pressure Congress to course correct itself.
Rep. Josh Tanner, an Eagle Republican and another cosponsor, said the Idaho Legislature’s budget committee, which he co-chairs, earlier Friday “made hard decisions” to cut state spending across most agencies to balance Idaho’s budget. He said the federal deficit needs to be addressed, arguing Congress needs to “do their job.”
“If I could give them the middle finger here on the floor, I would do that — because they are failing my children, my grandchildren, and all of yours,” Tanner said on the House floor.
But several Republican and Democrat lawmakers said they worried the process could risk the entire U.S. Constitution.
Rep. Cornel Rasor, a Republican from Sagle, said he doesn’t believe the Constitution can be recreated in today’s political environment.
“We do not have the kind of men and women who occupied this country 250 years ago and came together in a momentous time and created what we have today,” Rasor said. “I do not believe it could even be done again.”
Some Republican legislators said they trusted the process.
“I have faith that it’s gonna turn out,” said Rep. David Cannon, a Republican from Blackfoot. “But I think it’s in there as a tool that we can use. I don’t think it’s, as some people will tell you, a mistake.”
The U.S. Constitution has never been amended using a convention, a process outlined in the Constitution that requires applications by 34 states. Amendments proposed in a convention must be ratified by 38 states to take effect.
Twenty states have applied for a convention, according to the pro-convention advocacy group Convention of the States. The Hill reports that 28 states have applied for a convention to pass a balanced budget amendment.
In a 2012 report, the Congressional Research Service wrote that a convention of the states “is one of few provisions of the Constitution that has never been implemented,” and the process “presents many questions for Congress.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former Republican presidential candidate, visited Idaho this year and last year to push the Gem State to join the call.
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