House advances calls for constitution conventions on a balanced budget, term limits

"Signing of the Constitution" by Howard Chandler Christy. Imave via Architect of the Capitol.

Proposals for Florida to call for constitutional conventions on term limits and a balanced budget are advancing in the House.

The House State Affairs Committee OK’d concurrent resolutions that potentially could lead to the first constitutional convention since the nation’s founding.

Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican, said such a convention is one of the only ways the Legislature can provide a check on Congress. He sponsored legislation (HCR 703) that ultimately seeks an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring a balanced federal budget.

“Congress has failed to act on this issue with an unsustainable budget deficit,” Sirois said. “We should use a tool available to us and ask for them to have a convention.”

A committee hearing included some debate on the merits of both term limits and a balanced budget amendment, but Democrats opposed to the resolutions primarily focused on a more unpredictable threat.

“We’re opening Pandora’s box,” said Rep. Robin Bartleman, a Weston Democrat. “There is a threat of a runaway convention.”

Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows two ways for the document to be amended, but only one method has been used since the document was crafted. From the ratification of the Bill of Rights to the 27th amendment — ratified in 1992 to restrict congressional salary increases — the changes to the Constitution originated in Congress and were ratified by Legislatures in three quarters of the states.

But a second method allows for Legislatures to start the process. If two-thirds of states call for the convening of a constitutional convention, Congress then must call one and allow amendments to be proposed.

The fear for Bartleman and others is that no one knows what happens from there. The first constitutional convention came together in Philadelphia in 1787, and ultimately crafted the structure of federal government that, two years later, replaced the Articles of Confederation completely.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, suggested any constitutional convention could become a threat to the U.S. Constitution itself.

“The concern is that this is a Trojan horse for something much more insidious,” she said.

But sponsors for proposals suggested that’s unlikely.

Rep. David Borrero, a Sweetwater Republican, carried the term limits resolution (HCR 693), which would call for a convention on an amendment limiting the number of terms individuals could serve in the U.S. House and Senate. His resolution states the call for a convention “may not be aggregated with applications on any other subject.”

“If they are calling on different subject matters, we can challenge it,” he said. “We have the power of revoking it.”

Sirois acknowledged that a constitutional convention called using this second provision of the Constitution would have no precedent. But he included language in his bill making it clear the call for a gathering would be to discuss a balanced budget amendment, and should not count toward the vote for any other convention.

Regardless, even if a constitutional convention decided to reach beyond a narrow scope, lawmakers said such a gathering had no power to put any proposals into effect. The U.S. Constitution requires any changes coming out of a convention to be ratified by a supermajority of states.

“This fear of us tinkering with the Constitution, any proposed amendment would require the support of three-quarters of the states,” said Rep. Spencer Roach, a North Fort Myers Republican. “There is ultimately a check on power. If the voters don’t like it, they don’t have to approve it.”