HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	128
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM THAT WILL RESTORE BALANCE AND INTEGRITY TO OUR NATIONAL SYSTEM OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE IN THE INTEREST OF PRESERVING SELF   GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.

 

 

 

        WHEREAS, the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America intended that the Congress of the United States of America should be "dependent on the people alone"; and,

 

        WHEREAS, that dependency has evolved from a dependency on the people alone to a dependency on powerful special interests through spending by third-party groups, campaigns, or out-of-state donors; and

 

        WHEREAS, as a result, the United States Congress has faced issues of internal dysfunction, unable to perform the basic functions of a legislature, and consistently unable to pass necessary legislation; and

 

        WHEREAS, the Framers of the Constitution of the United States knew that amendments would be needed to address deficiencies and to adjust to new circumstances that would face our nation, and therefore provided the procedure for adding amendments to that Constitution in Article V; and

 

        WHEREAS, in the Regular Session of 2010, Hawaii became the first state legislature to formally request that the United States Congress propose an amendment to protect the states' ability to legislate common sense campaign finance laws by passing House Concurrent Resolution 282, House Draft 1; and

        WHEREAS, in the following ten years, the Hawaii Legislature has received no proposed amendment from Congress and continues to perceive the growing need for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States that will permanently protect fair elections in America by ensuring balance, integrity, and transparency to our national system of campaign finance; and

 

        WHEREAS, the State intends the proposed constitutional amendment to protect and strengthen the First Amendment by ensuring the voices of the American people can be heard and represented equally in government, and can no longer be disproportionately minimized by the undue influence of powerful special interests and dark money groups; and

 

        WHEREAS, the State also intends the proposed constitutional amendment to ensure the ability of the United States Congress and the states, within their respective jurisdictions, to reasonably regulate contributions and expenditures in campaigns, elections, or ballot measures however they deem appropriate; and

 

        WHEREAS, the State further intends the proposed amendment to ensure that the United States Congress and the states shall have the power to implement and enforce the amendment by appropriate legislation; and

 

        WHEREAS, the Framers appointed the United States Congress as an originator of needed amendments, but also recognized that the United States Congress itself may become in need of reform and may prove unwilling to reform itself, so an alternative source for proposed amendments was needed and the state legislatures were selected as that source; and

 

        WHEREAS, the Bill of Rights, among fifteen of twenty   seven amendments added to the Constitution of the United States, were partly in response to pressure from state legislatures calling for a convention to propose needed amendments; and

 

        WHEREAS, because the Constitution of the United States requires that three-fourths of the states ratify an amendment proposed by Congress or to convene an amendments convention, no amendment has ever been adopted unless it represents a bipartisan consensus, thus ensuring that no extreme or partisan proposal can succeed; and

 

        WHEREAS, an amendment convention held pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States would be limited to only the subject specified in the applications from thirty-four states, would have its delegates bound by the instructions and limitations of the state legislatures that sent them, and would have such limitations enforceable by the United States judicial system; now, therefore,

 

        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2021, the Senate concurring, that this body requests the United States Congress to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America on campaign finance reform to restore balance and integrity to our national system of campaign finance and permanently protect the integrity of our elections; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if the United States Congress does not propose a constitutional amendment satisfying the principles as described within this Concurrent Resolution, this body urges the Hawaii State Legislature of the Regular Session of 2024 to petition to the United States Congress to call for a limited convention for the exclusive purpose of proposing amendments that satisfy the principles as described within this Concurrent Resolution to the Constitution of the United States; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Concurrent Resolution is intended to be a continuing application considered together with applications calling for a convention passed in the 2013-2014 Vermont Legislature as R-454, the 2013-2014 California Legislature as Resolution Chapter 77, the 98th Illinois General Assembly as SJR 0042, the 2014-2015 New Jersey legislature as SCR 132, the 2015-2016 Rhode Island legislature as HR 7670 and SR 2589, and all other passed, pending, and future applications until such time as two-thirds of the several states have applied for a convention for a similar purpose and said convention is convened by the United States Congress; and

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED this body urges the legislatures of each of the states comprising the United States of America to issue similar petitions in order to build the consensus necessary to amend the Constitution of the United States; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body respectfully requests that the full and complete text of this Concurrent Resolution be printed in the Congressional Record; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body requests the cooperation of the states in issuing an application compelling the United States Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States of America; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States; Vice President of the United States in the Vice President's capacity as presiding officer of the United States Senate; Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives; President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate; Hawaii's Congressional Delegation; and the presiding officers of each legislative body of the states that comprise the United States of America.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:  

United States Constitution; Amendment