what fraction of congress does it take to propose an amendment

[LegisBrief] Amending the U.S. Constitution

By Brenda Erickson | Vol . 25, No. 30 / August 2017

Current efforts by some state legislatures and other groups to amend the U.S. Constitution take brought along questions virtually the process for doing so. The Founding Fathers, in crafting the Constitution, believed information technology should not be easy to amend the nation's founding document and principles.

Dominance to Amend the U.S. Constitution

Commodity 5 of the U.s. Constitution outlines bones procedures for constitutional subpoena.

1. Congress may submit a proposed constitutional amendment to u.s.a., if the proposed amendment language is approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses.
2. Congress must call a convention for proposing amendments upon awarding of the legislatures of two-thirds of united states (i.e., 34 of 50 states).
3. Amendments proposed past Congress or convention become valid only when ratified by the legislatures of, or conventions in, three-fourths of united states of america (i.e., 38 of l states).

Amendments Proposed by Congress

To date, Congress has submitted 33 amendment proposals to us, 27 of which were ratified. The 27^th Subpoena, which prevents members of Congress from granting themselves pay raises during a current session, was ratified in 1992—202 years after information technology was first submitted to the states.

The following steps must be completed for an amendment proposed by Congress to exist added to the Us Constitution.\

Footstep ane. Passage past Congress. Proposed amendment language must exist canonical by a two-thirds vote of both houses.

Footstep two. Notification of the states. The national archivist sends notification and materials to the governor of each state.

Step three. Ratification past 3-fourths of us. Ratification of the amendment linguistic communication adopted by Congress is an up-or-down vote in each legislative chamber. A country legislature cannot change the language. If it does, its ratification is invalid. A governor'southward signature on the ratification nib or resolution is non necessary.

Stride 4. Tracking state deportment. Proposed amendments must exist ratified by three-fourths of the states in order to take effect. Congress may set a time limit for state action. The official count is kept by Office of the Federal Register at the National Archives. Legislatures must return specific materials to show proof of ratification.

Step 5. Announcement. When the requisite number of states ratify a proposed amendment, the archivist of the United States proclaims information technology equally a new amendment to the U.Due south. Constitution. Actual certification is published immediately in the Federal Register and eventually in the United states Statutes-at-Large.

State legislatures ofttimes call upon Congress to propose constitutional amendments. While these calls may bring some political pressure to comport, Congress is under no constitutional obligation to answer. The U.S. Constitution does not contain a provision requiring Congress to submit a proposed amendment upon request past some requisite number of states.

Amendment by Constitutional Convention

In addition to constitutional amendments proposed by Congress, states have the option of petitioning Congress to call a ramble convention. Legislatures in ii-thirds of states must concord, however. While the convention process has withal to be triggered, efforts to practice so are not new. In fact, they may be "every bit old as the republic." Unofficial sources written report convention applications being filed as early equally 1789.

Interest in a U.South. constitutional convention has peaked and waned several times over the decades. In the early 1900s, straight election of senators was a hot topic. In the 1940s and 1950s, federal taxing power was the focus of many applications. Ii issues came shut to triggering conventions during the 1960s to 1990s—apportionment and a counterbalanced federal budget.

The current wave of interest began around 2010. Its focus is not a unmarried issue nor is it beingness driven past one system. Various groups are pushing their viewpoints—be they conservative, liberal, populist or progressive—and are urging activity. On the one paw, legislation calls for a convention on a broad assortment of topics, such every bit limiting authority of the federal government, balanced federal budget, campaign finance reform, congressional term limits or federal debt. On the other hand, some legislation proposes to rescind previous calls for a convention.

The volume of legislation introduced in land legislatures illustrates recent interest.

• 2011—78 bills or resolutions
• 2012—40 bills or resolutions
• 2013—62 bills or resolutions
• 2014—66 bills or resolutions
• 2015—65 bills or resolutions
• 2016—89 bills or resolutions
• 2017 (through July 12, 2017)—120 bills or resolutions

It is hard to predict whether electric current efforts will lead to a constitutional convention. And since an Article V convention has never been held, questions are beingness raised about when and how this may happen:

• Does someone officially track convention applications?
• Has an official list of the applications been created?
• What constitutes an official application by a land legislature?
• What is the proper procedure for enacting and submitting country legislative applications?
• Must the linguistic communication of the states' applications exist identical?
• Must the applications exist fabricated be made inside a specific or relatively close timeframe?
• May a legislature rescind its ain application?
• May a subsequent legislature rescind an application submitted past a previous legislature?
• May the scope of the convention be limited?
• May the country legislatures establish the scope limit within their calls? Or is that a congressional function?

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Source: https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/amending-the-u-s-constitution.aspx

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