PRINTER'S NO. 2392

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

No.

457

Session of

2019

INTRODUCED BY MURT, SOLOMON, DONATUCCI, SCHLOSSBERG, RAVENSTAHL,

SANCHEZ, JOHNSON-HARRELL, MOUL, CIRESI, McCLINTON, QUINN,

DALEY, BRIGGS, CALTAGIRONE, FRANKEL AND DeLUCA,

States, to authorize the states to apply disclosure rules and

reasonable guidelines on election campaign contributions and

expenditures.

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, as noted

by James Madison in Federalist No. 52, that the Congress of the

United States should be "dependent on the people alone"; and

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed";

and

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the

United States 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 states to establish their own laws governing the financing

of elections; and

WHEREAS, Prior to 2010, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had

restrictions on the amount of independent and aggregate

political spending, effectively denying the states the ability

to establish their own laws governing the financing of

elections, and the removal of those restrictions has resulted in

the undue influence of powerful economic forces, which have

supplanted the will of the people by undermining their ability

to choose their political leadership and determine the fate of

their states and the nation as a whole; and

WHEREAS, Elections for public office should be free of the

corrupting influence of excessive spending by outside interests

halls of government; and

WHEREAS, Therefore, a Free and Fair Elections Amendment

should be added to the Constitution of the United States to

guarantee the preservation of the inalienable right to self-

determination and self-governance for future generations of

Americans; and

WHEREAS, Article V of the Constitution of the United States

grants the states co-equal power to the Congress of the United

States to propose Federal constitutional amendments and was

added at the urging of our founding fathers so that the states

Constitutional Republic, including President Abraham Lincoln

when he spoke of amending the Constitution of the United States,

stating that "the convention mode seems preferable, in that it

allows amendments to originate with the people themselves," and

President Dwight Eisenhower, stating that "Through their state

legislatures and without regard to the Federal Government, the

people can demand a convention to propose amendments that can

and will reverse any trends they see as fatal to true

representative government"; and

WHEREAS, Article V of the Constitution of the United States

No. 85 by Alexander Hamilton, who noted: "The words of this

article are peremptory. The Congress 'shall call a convention.'

Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion of that

body"; and

WHEREAS, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania urges that the

delegates to the Convention of States be comprised equally from

individuals currently elected to state and local office, or be

determined by election, in each congressional district in

Pennsylvania, for the purpose of serving as delegates, though

all individuals elected or appointed to Federal office, now or

applications calling for a Convention of States passed in the

2013-2014 Vermont legislature as R-454, the 98th Illinois

General Assembly as Senate Joint Resolution No. 42, and as

approved by the Senate of the 98th General Assembly of the State

of Missouri in 2015 as Senate Concurrent Resolution 24 and the

House of Representatives of the 164th General Court of the State

of New Hampshire in 2015 as House Concurrent Resolution 2 and

all other passed, pending and future applications, the

aforementioned concerns notwithstanding until such time as two-

thirds of the states have applied for a Convention of States and

Elections Amendment to the Constitution of the United States via

a Convention of States, pursuant to Article V of the

Constitution of the United States, to authorize the states to

apply disclosure rules and reasonable guidelines on election

campaign contributions and expenditures; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a Free and Fair Elections Amendment allow

states to place reasonable limits on campaign contributions,

establish disclosure rules, provide for stricter enforcement of

existing bans on coordination between candidates and super PACs

and ensure that American elections are free and fair so that the

of the United States Senate, the Secretary and Parliamentarian

of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States

House of Representatives, the Majority and Minority Leaders of

the United States House of Representatives, the Clerk and

Parliamentarian of the United States House of Representatives

and each member of Congress from Pennsylvania, with the

respectful request that the full and complete text of this

resolution be printed in the Congressional Record and that this

resolution be referred to the committees of the United States

Senate and the United States House of Representatives having

particular states in approving applications compelling the

Congress of the United States to call a convention for the

purpose set forth in this resolution.