Sometimes it takes a little bit of luck, and maybe just plain old fatigue.
But, in my opinion, the most important piece of legislation passed by the 2019 Legislature got a little bit of both this week.
SJR9 passed the House – its last hurdle – at 8:25 p.m. Wednesday, March 5.
Mark that time and date.
The bill passed 42-32 in the 75-member body, having barely passed the Senate, 16-12, the week before.
The resolution – it does not go to GOP Gov. Gary Herbert for his approval or veto – officially puts Utah as calling for an Article V constitutional convention of the states.
We all know that the United States Congress doesn’t work – whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats or split parties between House and Senate.
The 100 senators and 425 House members can’t pass a budget. Can’t control the spiraling federal debt, now over $22 trillion.
Because of our campaign funding laws, we keep electing federal congresspeople year after year – getting more and more of the same dysfunction government in Washington, D.C.
The Founding Fathers put a lot of faith in the three federal branches of government, legislative, executive and judicial.
They believed most of the power would be in the legislative – Congress. With the president just carrying out the policy set by legislators, and the courts handling what was perceived then as a rather small part of the judiciary.
But Congress can’t act. Can’t, or won’t, take important votes on major issues – not just the budget, but immigration, western federal land control, term limits and on and on.
So, the U.S. Constitution allows for an out in just the situation the United States finds itself in today – a Congress that can’t correct what is wrong with the federal government via the Constitution.
And now Utah joins the still fledgling “convention of the states” movement.
When 34 state Legislatures agree – and formally join the CofS call – then Congress MUST call for such a convention of all the 50 states – whether the other states want to or not.
Congress won’t control, in any way, the convention. Only delegates picked by the individual state Legislatures will.
Like several of the other 17 states that have called for the convention, Utah’s call, via SJR9, is limited – just for term limits of congressmen and balanced budget matters.
Senate sponsor of SJR9, Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, took a little humorous liberty and dressed himself before Senate floor debate in a crown and robe of the hundreds of messages he got opposed to his bill.
House sponsor Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, took no such fun.
Long an advocate of an Article V convention, Nelson says he is both surprised and pleased that the resolution that he’s sponsored in the past, did indeed happen this session.
UtahPolicy.com is told that as the evening session last Tuesday went longer and longer – and SJR9 crept closer to the top of the House floor calendar – several backers came to Nelson and said they were tired of getting the same kind of notes from SJR9 opponents that Vickers had draped himself in.
So Nelson made a decision – while he thought he had the 38 votes needed for passage, he would grab the moment, and call for debate and a vote before the weary representatives called it quits for the night.
And so the 2019 Utah Legislature steps into history. A history that, if the Article V convention is ultimately called, and acts on a balanced budget amendment, Utah will have played an important part – way back on an early March night in 2019.
