Some Proposed Amendments
The Constitution is a living and evolving document. One
of the ways that the Constitution is changed is through the
amendment process. It
can be an arduous process, requiring agreement by many different segments of
society and the government, and
it does not always work
out. But it is the only way to make a permanent change to the Constitution.
Changes in interpretation are common as time progresses, but only by having
actual text added can a change be called a part of the Constitution.
In every session of Congress, hundreds of constitutional
amendments are proposed. Almost never do any of them become actual Amendments.
In fact, almost never do any of them even get out of committee.
According to
a study by C-SPAN,
this is a count of the number of amendments proposed in each of the sessions of
Congress in the 1990's:
- 106th (1999 only): 60
- 105th (1997-98): 103
- 104th (1995-96): 158
- 103rd (1993-94): 156
- 102nd (1991-92): 165
- 101st (1989-90): 214
It is interesting to see the types of things our
legislators want to do the Constitution. Proposed amendments are a reflection of
the mood of the nation, or of a subset of the population.
These lists are simple bullets, not detailed
examinations of the proposed amendments, the bills that carried them, or the
process they went through. If a further examination is desired, a search of the
Thomas database can be done.
Please note that some proposed amendments are proposed
over and over again in different sessions of Congress. For the sake of brevity,
I have used the 102nd Congress as a "baseline" and each subsequent Congress has
only new ideas for amendments listed. Also note that just because a proposed
amendment is not listed in prior sessions does not mean it was not proposed in
prior sessions.
109th Congress (2005-2006)
- To specifically permit prayer at school meetings and
ceremonies
- To allow non-natural born citizens to become
President if they have been a citizen for 20 years
- To specifically allow Congress to regulate the amount
of personal funds a candidate to public office can expend in a campaign
- To ensure that apportionment of Representatives be
set by counting only citizens
- To make the filibuster in the Senate a part of the
Constitution
- To provide for continuity of government in case of a
catastrophic event
- The "Every Vote Counts" Amendment - providing for
direct election of the President and Vice President, abolishing the
Electoral College
- To clarify eminent domain, specifically that no
takings can be transferred to a private person except for transportation
projects
- Providing a right to work, for equal pay for equal
work, the right to organize, and the right to favorable work conditions
- To allow the President to reduce any Congressional
appropriation, or to disapprove of same (akin to a line-item veto)
108th Congress (2003-2004)
- To lower the age restriction on Representatives and
Senators from 30 and 25 respectively to 21
- To ensure that citizens of U.S. territories and
commonwealths can vote in presidential elections
- To guarantee the right to use the word "God" in the
Pledge of Allegiance
and the national motto
- To restrict marriage in all states to be between a
man and a woman
- To remove any protection any court may find for child
pornography
- To allow Congress to pass laws for emergency
replenishment of its membership should more than a quarter of either house be
killed
- To place Presidential nominees immediately into
position, providing the Senate with 120 days to reject the nominee before the
appointment is automatically permanent
107th Congress (2001-2002)
- Calling for the repeal of the
8th Amendment and
its replacement with wording prohibiting incarceration for minor traffic
offenses
- To specify that progressive income taxes must be used
- To specify a right to "equal high quality" health
care
- To limit pardons granted between October 1 and
January 21 of any presidential election year
- To require a balanced budget without use of Social
Security Trust Fund monies
- To allow for any person who has been a citizen of the
United States for twenty years or more to be eligible for the Presidency
- To force the members of Congress and the President to
forfeit their salary, on a per diem basis, for every day past the end of the
fiscal year that a budget for that year remains unpassed
106th Congress (1999-2000)
- To provide a new method for proposing amendments to
the Constitution, where two-thirds of all state legislatures could start the
process
- To allow Congress to enact campaign spending limits
on federal elections
- To allow Congress to enact campaign spending limits
on state elections
- To declare that life begins at conception and that
the 5th and
14th amendments
apply to unborn children
- To prohibit courts from instructing any state or
lower government to levy or raise taxes
105th Congress (1997-1998)
- To force a national referendum for any deficit
spending
- To provide for the reconfirmation of federal judges
every 12 years
- To prohibit the early release of convicted criminals
- To establish the right to a home
- To define the legal effect of international treaties
- To clarify that the Constitution neither prohibits
nor requires school prayer
- To establish judicial terms of office
104th Congress (1995-1996)
- To clarify the meaning of
the 2nd Amendment
- To provide for the reconfirmation of federal judges
every 6 years
- To force a two-thirds vote for any bill that raises
taxes
- To repeal
the 16th Amendment
and specifically prohibit an income tax
- To provide for removal of any officer of the U.S.
convicted of a felony
- To permit the States to set term limits for their
Representatives and Senators
103rd Congress (1993-1994)
- To allow a Presidential pardon of an individual only
after said individual has been tried and convicted of a crime
- To allow Congress to pass legislation to allow the
Supreme Court to remove federal judges from office
- To provide for the reconfirmation of federal judges
every 10 years
- To provide for the recall of Representatives and
Senators
- To remove automatic citizenship of children born in
the U.S. to non-resident parents
- To enable or repeal laws by popular vote
- To define a process to allow amendments to the
Constitution be proposed by a popular ("grass-roots") effort
- To force a three-fifths vote for any bill that raises
taxes
- To prohibit retroactive taxation
- To provide for run-off Presidential elections if no
one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote
- To prohibit abortion
- To bar imposition on the States of unfunded federal
mandates
102nd Congress (1991-1992)
- To disallow the desecration of the U.S. Flag
- To allow a line-item veto in appropriations bills
- To expand the term of Representatives to four years
- To force a balanced budget
- To prohibit involuntary bussing of students
- To make English the official language of the United
States
- To set term limits on Representatives and Senators
- To repeal
the 22nd Amendment
(removing Presidential term limits)
- To guarantee a right to employment opportunity for
all citizens
- To grant protections to unborn children
- To provide for "moments of silence" in public schools
- To allow Congress to regulate expenditures for and
contributions to political campaigns
- To provide for the rights of crime victims
- To provide for access to medical care for all
citizens
- To repeal
the 2nd Amendment
(right to bear arms)
- To prohibit the death penalty
- To protect the environment
- To repeal
the 26th Amendment
(granting the vote to 18-year olds) and granting the right to vote to 16-year
olds
- To provide equal rights to men and women
As an example of the tenacity of some ideas, the desire
to repeal the 22nd
Amendment is a very popular one. Using the Thomas database, we searched all
the way back to the 99th Congress, which started in 1985, for proposals to
repeal the 22nd. In 2005, there was a great deal of discussion, and derision, of
a new proposal to repeal the 22nd. But the derision, certainly, was unwarranted.
Every Congress since the 99th has had at least one proposal with the sole intent
of repealing the 22nd. Other proposed amendments to otherwise affect the 22nd,
such as replacing the two-term limit with a single six-year term, extend back to
at least 1979's 96th Congress, but were not included in this list.
- 109th Congress - HJ Res 24 (2005)
- 108th Congress - HJ Res 25 (2003)
- 107th Congress - HJ Res 39 (2001)
- 106th Congress - HJ Res 24 (1999)
- 105th Congress - HJ Res 39 (1997)
- 104th Congress - HJ Res 71 (1995)
- 103rd Congress - HJ Res 107 (1993)
- 102nd Congress - HJ Res 61 (1991)
- 101st Congress - HJ Res 84 (1989)
- 100th Congress - HJ Res 156 (1987)
- 99th Congress - HJ Res 687 (1986)