PRINTER'S NO. 1701

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

No.

374

Session of

2015

INTRODUCED BY COHEN, V. BROWN, DEAN, FREEMAN, GIBBONS, MAHONEY,

McNEILL, C. PARKER AND SCHWEYER, JUNE 5, 2015

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, JUNE 5, 2015

WHEREAS, Our first President, George Washington, declared in

his 1796 farewell address: "The basis of our political systems

is the right of the people to make and to alter their

constitutions of government," and it was the clear intention of

the framers of the Constitution of the United States that

Congress should be "dependent on the people alone", as stated by

James Madison in the Federalist No. 52; and

WHEREAS, The Constitution of the United States guarantees the

right of the people to govern themselves; and

WHEREAS, The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment provides: "The powers not

delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor

prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States

respectively, or to the people" which, until 2010, had

consistently been interpreted to allow the several states to

establish their own laws governing the financing of elections;

and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court on January 21, 2010,

in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and on April

2, 2014, in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission removed

restrictions on amounts of independent and aggregate political

public office; and

WHEREAS, Free and fair elections ensure a robust debate and a

healthy marketplace of ideas in the halls of our governments;

and

WHEREAS, The Constitution of the United States should be

amended to further guarantee free and fair elections and the

preservation of the inalienable right to self-government for

future generations of Americans; and

WHEREAS, Article V of the Constitution of the United States

grants the states coequal power to Congress for the proposing of

several states could protect themselves and their citizens from

encroachments of the Federal Government or in the event that the

Federal Government would someday became unresponsive to the will

of the American people; and

WHEREAS, President Dwight Eisenhower believed that the people

can demand a convention to propose amendments that can and will

reverse any trends they see as fatal to true representative

government, through their state legislatures; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan also supported the proposal

of amendments via a convention of the states; and

WHEREAS, In President Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural

RESOLVED (the Senate concurring), That the General Assembly

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania petition the Congress of the

United States, pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the

United States, to call a constitutional convention for the sole

purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the

United States to authorize the several states to regulate

election campaign contributions and expenditures; and be it

further

RESOLVED, That Pennsylvania constitutional convention

delegates be comprised equally of individuals from each

prohibited from serving as delegates to the convention; and be

it further

RESOLVED, That the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania retain the ability to restrict or expand the

authority of its Pennsylvania delegates within the limits

expressed in this concurrent resolution; and be it further

RESOLVED, That this concurrent resolution constitute a

continuing application considered together with similar

applications calling for a convention on this subject, such as

those approved in 2014 by Vermont's legislature (J.R.S. 27) and

by California's legislature (AJR 1) and as introduced in 2014 by

RESOLVED, That the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the

House of Representatives of the United States enter this

application into a full and complete public tally of state

applications for a constitutional convention authorized by

Article V of the Constitution of the United States; and be it

further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to

the President of the United States, to the President of the

Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United

States, to each member of Congress from Pennsylvania and to each