Committee rejects amendment that would strip wording from memorial, then advances joint memorial to rules

The committee considered an amendment (Amendment I) to Senate Joint Memorial 8008, which proposes to rescind prior requests to Congress for an Article V convention. The amendment would have removed several findings from the memorial and struck the word "constitutional" when modifying references to a convention.

Senator Hasegawa urged members to vote no on the amendment, saying the amendment removed key rationale and rationale-related language from the memorial and warning about the risks of opening the constitutional-convention process. In part she argued that a constitutional convention could create far-reaching changes and that the preferred method to amend the Constitution is by Congress proposing amendments for ratification by the states.

The amendment failed on a committee voice vote; the chair ruled Amendment I was not adopted. After that vote the committee approved the joint memorial itself and reported it to the rules committee with a due-pass recommendation. The chair recorded that the joint memorial had passed "subject to signatures."