HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

50

TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2017

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

URGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO RESTORE FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, according to The Federalist No. 52 by James Madison, the framers of the Constitution of the United States intended that the Congress of the United States should be "dependent on the people alone"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the "dependency on the people alone" has evolved into a dependency on powerful special interests that act through campaigns or third-party groups, thereby creating a fundamental imbalance in our representative democracy; and

 

     WHEREAS, Americans across the political spectrum agree that elections in the United States should be free from the disproportional influence of special interests and fair enough that any citizen can be elected into office; and

 

     WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution requires Congress to convene a convention for proposing amendments to the federal Constitution on the application of two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii desires to restore balance and integrity to our elections by proposing a federal constitutional amendment to permanently protect free and fair elections in the United States by addressing issues raised by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), and related cases and events; and

     WHEREAS, the Twenty-ninth Legislature desires that Hawaii have an equal number of delegates to the Convention as any other state; provided that former or current federal office holders, whether elected or appointed, are not eligible to serve as delegates to the Convention; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Twenty-ninth Legislature shall retain the ability to restrict or expand the authority of its delegates within the limits expressed herein; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Twenty-ninth Legislature intends that this continuing application shall be considered with the applications that have been adopted by the 2013-2014 Vermont Legislature, the 2013-2014 California Legislature, the Ninety-eighth Illinois General Assembly, the 2014-2015 New Jersey Legislature, and the 2015-2016 Rhode Island Legislature, as well as all applications that are subsequently adopted until two-thirds of the several states have applied for, and Congress has convened, a convention for proposing amendments to restore free and fair elections; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2017, the Senate concurring, that the people of the State of Hawaii speaking through its Legislature, hereby submit an application to the United States Congress to restore free and fair elections as described herein; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States; Vice President of the United States, as presiding officer of the United States Senate; President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate; the Minority Leader of the United States Senate; the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives; and Hawaii's Congressional delegation.

 

 

 

Report Title: 

Urging the United States Congress to Restore Free and Fair Elections by Applying for a Convention to Propose Amendments to the United States Constitution.