The Idaho House slapped down a proposed constitutional convention to impose congressional term limits and a federal balanced budget amendment.
Under the proposal, the federal government could not spend more money than the revenue it collects. It did not outline how many terms members of the House of Representatives or Senate could serve.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows state legislatures to propose amendments to the country’s founding document. That’s if two-thirds of the states agree to create a convention.
Any amendment debated at such a convention would need 75% of states attending to approve it.
High-profile opposing political groups, like the Idaho Republican Party or the progressive Common Cause fight against convening states under Article V.
That’s because the U.S. Constitution doesn’t lay out any rules for the process, leading to concerns that the convention couldn’t be limited to specific topics.
Current state Sen. Christy Zito (R-Mountain Home), who served as a lobbyist for the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance last year, opposed a similar effort.
At the time, Zito said a constitutional convention could threaten gun rights. “What is to stop the convention from getting out of control?” she asked.
House Democratic Leader Ilana Rubel (D-Boise) agrees with them.
She said there are problems with the country, including an exponentially expanding federal debt totaling $36.5 trillion as of Wednesday afternoon.
But Rubel said those issues don’t necessitate a complete constitutional overhaul.
“We are not a flaming trainwreck where we have to just go back to the starting board and start all over,” she said.
“I only wish I had a ‘hell no’ button” to vote with," Rubel said.
Only about one-third of the House supported the idea, including Rep. John Vander Woude (R-Nampa).
He said organizing a constitutional convention would be worth the risk to reign in what he calls a “runaway government.”
Vander Woude criticized many of his fellow conservatives who routinely oppose budget bills each year because they include programs funded with federal money.
“The same people in this body and [in the Senate] that will vote against any federal dollars coming here don’t want to tell the federal government, ‘You need to cut your budget and get it back in line,’” he said.
In the end, the proposal failed 26-44.
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