HJR 38: Requesting the United States Congress to call a Constitutional Convention to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States requiring approval of a majority of state legislatures to increase the federal debt limit.
00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 38 01 Requesting the United States Congress to call a Constitutional Convention to propose an 02 amendment to the Constitution of the United States requiring approval of a majority of 03 state legislatures to increase the federal debt limit. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS, in 1982, the Twelfth Alaska State Legislature passed Legislative 06 Resolve No. 1, expressing concern that the public debt of the United States exceeded 07 hundreds of billions of dollars and making application to the United States Congress, under 08 Article V of the Constitution of the United States, for a constitutional convention for the 09 purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States requiring that in 10 the absence of a national emergency, the total of all appropriations made by the United States 11 Congress for a fiscal year shall not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenue for that 12 fiscal year; and 13 WHEREAS, in 1997, the Twentieth Alaska State Legislature passed Legislative 14 Resolve No. 20, expressing ongoing concern that a balanced budget amendment to the United 15 States Constitution continued to be necessary to control the national deficit and to control
01 national government spending and urging the United States Congress and the President to 02 support a resolution proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United 03 States, and urging the legislature of each state of the nation to ratify the amendment; and 04 WHEREAS, because paying the nation's bills by simply raising the federal debt limit 05 has proven a failed policy, and the rapidly rising federal debt limit and rapidly increasing 06 federal debt compel the need for an urgent call for a balanced budget amendment to the 07 Constitution of the United States; and 08 WHEREAS it is increasingly critical to the national interest for the federal 09 government to live within its means and not to continue to authorize appropriations for a 10 current fiscal year that exceed the total estimated revenue fund by increasing the federal debt 11 limit; and 12 WHEREAS, in 2012, the United States continues to move more deeply into debt as 13 its expenditures exceed its available revenue, and, with recent increases, the federal debt limit 14 now exceeds $15 trillion; and 15 WHEREAS the federal budget has increased in size at a rate that is out of control and 16 unsustainable in relation to available revenue; and 17 WHEREAS the goal of controlling the unsustainable growth of the federal debt limit 18 and federal government spending must be achieved to protect the economic and political 19 stability of the United States for current and future generations; and 20 WHEREAS Article V of the Constitution of the United States provides authority for a 21 convention to be called by the Congress of the United States for the purpose of proposing 22 amendments to the Constitution of the United States upon application of two-thirds of the 23 legislatures of the several states--an amendments convention; 24 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature wishes to remind the United 25 States Congress of the Alaska State Legislature's 1982 call for a convention to be called by 26 the United States Congress for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the 27 United States, that this call was and remains a continuing call for an amendments convention, 28 and that the Alaska State Legislature continues strongly to urge the separate states to join in 29 this call; and be it 30 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature makes an additional and 31 urgent call for a convention to be called by the United States Congress under Article V of the
01 Constitution of the United States for the proposal and ratification of an amendment to the 02 Constitution of the United States that provides that an increase in the federal debt limit 03 requires approval from a majority of the legislatures of the separate states; and be it 04 FURTHER RESOLVED that the amendments convention requested by this 05 resolution be limited to the subject matter of proposing for ratification an amendment to the 06 Constitution of the United States providing that an increase in the federal debt requires 07 approval from a majority of the legislatures of the separate states; and be it 08 FURTHER RESOLVED that this application constitutes a continuing application in 09 accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States until at least two-thirds of 10 the legislatures of the several states have made application for an equivalently limited 11 amendments convention; and be it 12 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the legislatures of 13 the other 49 states to make the same application. 14 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 15 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and 16 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Daniel K. Inouye, President pro tempore of the 17 U.S. Senate; the Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the 18 Honorable Nancy Erickson, Secretary of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Karen L. Haas, Clerk 19 of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable 20 Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of 21 the Alaska delegation in Congress; and the presiding officers of the legislatures of each of the 22 other 49 states.