Earlier this month, the Texas House of Representatives approved a Senate Joint Resolution, which calls for an Article V Convention of the States.
The House vote was 94 to 51.
This makes Texas the 11th of 34 states needed to call the convention.
Texas joins such states as Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Passage of the measure was listed as a priority by Governor Greg Abbott during his State of the State Address on January 31st.
The Texas call for a convention would be to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would
–impose fiscal restraints on the federal government,
–limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and
–limit the terms of office of federal officials and members of Congress.
This measure will be forwarded to Vice-President Mike Pence (who resides over the U.S. Senate) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (who resides over the U.S. House of Representatives).
Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, the legislatures of two thirds of the states can call for a convention to draft amendments to the Constitution, and any amendments approved by the convention would then require the support of three-quarters of the states to become part of the Constitution.
In its history, the U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times. So far, none of those were amendments generated by a convention of states.
