This past Constitution Day, a historic announcement was made regarding the failure of Congress to discharge its express, ministerial, and non-discretionary responsibilities under Article V of the Constitution. All of us participated in this historic event.
The National Federalism Commission — an official inter-state and nonpartisan governmental body — released a comprehensive report for the House Judiciary Committee that confirmed the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation’s multi-year claim that Congress should have called a Convention for Proposing Amendments focused on fiscal responsibility 46 years ago. But Congress failed to act.
Article V of the Constitution states, “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress…”
The Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation discovered over three years ago that there were enough active state applications pending in Congress in 1979 for a Convention of the States for proposing amendments to be called. Specifically, there were 39 active applications, of which 30 were for fiscal responsibility and nine were plenary or “any subject,” applications. Importantly, constitutional scholars across the political spectrum have said that plenary applications should be combined with like single subject applications in determining whether the 34-state application requirement has been met.
The number of active applications in 1979 clearly exceeded the 34-state requirement and should have resulted in an immediate call for a convention by the Congress. However, since the Congress had yet to establish a process for receiving, storing and counting applications, evidently no one realized that the trigger for calling a convention had been met.
In 2015, the Judiciary Committee began collecting and storing state applications. However, its records were incomplete. Therefore, in 2025 the Judiciary Committee entered into an agreement with the National Federalism Commission to bring its records up to date. The National Federalism Commission started with fiscal responsibility related applications given the magnitude of the issue and since it is the only subject where independent parties had asserted that the trigger to call a convention had already been met. The National Federalism Commission’s work is now continuing in connection with other subject applications.
The National Federalism Commission analysis confirmed that 34 or more active state applications existed in 1979 and continued for 25 years. In addition, it discovered that at least 34 active state applications existed in 2016 and 2017 as well.
Shockingly, since 1979, total federal debt has risen from less than $1 trillion to more than $37 trillion and rising rapidly. In addition, the dollar has lost almost 80 percent of its value since 1979. These terrible outcomes are a result of the failure of Congress to act in a timely manner.
The sad but simple truth is that Congress has been addicted to spending, deficits and debt for far too long. This has been and remains a bipartisan problem that must be corrected if we want our future generations to be better off than our past. Only a constitutional amendment can force Congress to quit placing unreasonable debt burdens on current and future generations of Americans.
Should Congress fail to act in a reasonably timely manner, states will be forced to take legal action to have their constitutional right upheld. Our nation’s founders recognized that the states needed to have the ability to propose amendments when the Congress fails to act.
Hand-wringers who worry about a “runaway” convention should rest easy. Since a majority of past and present state applications relate to the issue of fiscal responsibility, the convention will be focused solely on that topic. In addition, 16 states and growing have state delegate loyalty legislation that gives the state the right to recall any delegates that try to act beyond the topic outlined in the state’s application. The National Federalism Commission has this model legislation.
Finally, it takes 38 states to ratify the amendment. Given these safeguards, we should be far more concerned with a runaway federal government than with a runaway convention.
Congress should now call a convention — indeed, given the language of Article V, it should be automatic. In addition, Congress should consider requiring that any proposed amendment be ratified by state conventions of pledged delegates which is the closest thing to a referendum under our Constitution. This was the method that was used to ratify the 21st Amendment, which repealed prohibition.
Finally, the Congress should pass the resolution calling for an Article V Convention to ensure that this wrong is not repeated in the future. In addition, the Senate should recognize the committee’s process for recording applications for economy and efficiency purposes.
Jodey Arrington is chairman of the House Budget Committee. W. Bruce Lee is executive director of the National Federalism Commission. David M. Walker is former comptroller general of the United States and chairman of the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation.
