LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska should join eight other Republican-dominated states calling for a convention of states to pass constitutional amendments limiting federal government power, a state senator said Wednesday.
A resolution proposed by Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete would limit the convention to focus on the size and scope of the federal government, fiscal restraint and possible term limits for U.S. senators and representatives. Ebke, a Libertarian, proposed an identical bill that failed last year, but term limits and the 2016 election have turned over more than one-third of the Legislature.
Oklahoma, Louisiana, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Alaska and Georgia already have called for a convention to introduce amendments similar to Ebke’s. At least 35 other states are considering such legislation, said Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance and a former leader in the tea party movement. He’s spent the past few years traveling the country advocating for a convention of the states.
A convention of states returns to the principles in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Omaha resident Larry Storer said at a Government, Military and Veterans Affairs hearing on the proposal.
“It’s not about the guys with the money or the jobs or the businesses or the foundations that are behind them,” he said. “It’s about people like me.”
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution can be proposed either by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by at least 34 state legislatures. None of the 27 existing amendments have been proposed by state legislatures, but that hasn’t stopped groups of states from calling for amendments on issues ranging from campaign finance reform to banning same-sex marriage.
Opponents contend there aren’t ways to prevent a runaway convention. For instance, amendments could repeal federal legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, said Bri McLarty Huppert, voting rights director at the nonprofit Nebraskans for Civic Reform.
States could require their convention delegations to stick to one issue, Ebke countered, and the Constitution requires 38 states ratify any amendment.
“Anything that actually comes out of a convention is going to be something that represents a consensus rather than addresses some sort of radical issue,” Ebke said.
That wasn’t enough for North Platte resident Ed Rieker, who said that testimony Wednesday convinced him nobody knows what could actually come of a constitutional convention.
“We don’t know how they would change the constitution,” Rieker said. “It would be a pretty sad day if we wake up some morning and find out the bald eagle we all revered is a bald eagle in a cage.”
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