Friends of the Article V Convention - Congressional Records

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Congress Defies Article V of the U.S. Constitution by Ignoring Hundreds of Article V Applications From All 50 states:

IMPORTANT NOTICES:

With the advent of Congress (the House of Representatives) at last beginning an official count of applications, that list of course is the official list of state applications recognized by the government. FOAVC has sent links to the appropriate committee of the list below to aid in their efforts to list all state applications and ultimately issue a convention call based on those applications as required by Article V. When in the opinion of FOAVC it is apparent the congressional list is complete so as to truly present the full record of applications (a task which may take several years to complete) FOAVC will no longer post its present list as its purpose of providing for the first time a compilation of applications in a single location until the government shall list the applications will have been accomplished.

The government list and FOAVC are similar in many respects. Both list applications and rescissions but make it clear a rescission is not made "in pursuit of Article V." Both rely on public record of applications submitted by the state legislatures as proof of an application having been submitted by a state. While FOAVC lists subject matter, it clearly has stated that subject matter of an application shall have no no bearing on whether or not a convention must call. Hence, a call is based on a numeric count of applying states with no terms or conditions. This fact is reflected in the government list which only lists state and date of applications and provides no information regarding any subject matter contained in the application. FOAVC believes this fact of public record entirely vindicates the assertion of FOAVC and totally refutes those who have proposed timeliness, subject matter, same subject and so forth as one or more conditions which must be satisfied before Congress calls a convention.

Because it is not yet clear as of the time of this posting (February 21, 2015) whether or not the House intends to continue posting applications in the Congressional Record as it has done in the past or will simply post them on the website referenced above, FOAVC will of course continue to post applications as they appear using whatever format is available. Thus future applications may be in jpg format or pdf format. The government has so far posted applications based on original text of material sent them by the states and not in printed form from the Congressional Record. It appears this practice will continue. Such files are in pdf format. Therefore it is likely future applications will appear not as notations of full pages of the Congressional Record but as copies of the application itself taken from the text of material sent by the state to the House. Where a record exists in the Congressional Record only FOAVC will note that application based as always, on the Congressional Record. Where the application is already listed in the FOAVC list, FOAVC will list the House link along with the Congressional Record notation. Where the application is not in the Congressional Record FOAVC will now only list the House link. FOAVC of course has all pdf files from the House in its own records should the need arise to post these at some future date.

It should also be noted the Senate has yet to act and apparently will continue to post the applications its receives in the Congressional Record .

UPDATE: February 7, 2016: The gathering of applications by the House committee is becoming somewhat confused. In its first posting for the year 2016 the committee gave the year "2016" for a an application submitted in 1978 by the state of Kansas! FOAVC cannot understand nor provide any reasoning for this except to suggest the applications are being pulled from the records in a haphazard manner and perhaps this application came to light while the 300 or so existing between 1978 and the present remain inaccessible. It should be noted the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) recently refused (December 3, 2015 www.foavc.org/reference/file77.pdf ) to create a catalog, or list of applications, for official use. As such this has left the committee no choice but to dig through "half a billion" pages of government records to find the applications. Further it appears Congress is no longer posting the submitted state applications in the Congressional Record, rather the only posting will be on the committee website. FOAVC will continue to post the applications and if a congressional record exists, will post it along with the congressional committee information (See: http://clerk.house.gov/legislative/memorials.aspx). Where no congressional record exists, FOAVC will post the committee reference only. The order of posting will be based (absent a posting from the Congressional Record) on the date of publication given by the House Committee.

UPDATE: February 21, 2016: FOAVC has always attempted to provide the most accurate list of state applications possible. As mentioned several times the inaccurate record keeping by Congress presents several challenges making total accuracy impossible. The greatest challenge is the fact the House does not publish the text of the applications it mentions in its records while the Senate does publish the texts. Hence there can be no comparison between Senate and House publications of application text. As there currently is no procedure in place in Congress regarding state applications, publication of state applications has been, to say the least, haphazard. Thus an application may only be posted by the House and not the Senate or visa versa. In the past it has been the policy of FOAVC not to make assumptions regarding the applications unless by strict examination of the text of the applications in question, absolute determination of the question involved could be determined. This has resulted in applications being posted on the list showing numerous state applications on or about the same time which probably are, in fact, a single application by a state reported several times in the Congressional Record. After very long consideration FOAVC is now beginning the process of consolidation of these applications into what appears to be a more accurate picture of the applications by moving some applications which previously appeared as separate applications into groups of applications on a single line where it appears the application was simply noted several times in the Congressional Record. This has resulted in a smaller list of applications and hopefully, a more accurate list. In addition some duplication of applications and other errors have been discovered and are being corrected. It is emphasized however such assumptions may, in the future, prove inaccurate as the actual text of the applications, when finally available, may prove theses assumptions incorrect. If such is the case FOAVC apologizes for these inaccuracies. If they are discovered, FOAVC will correct its records. The basic fact still remains: Congress is obligated to call several conventions as there is irrefutable evidence provided by the applications of its constitutional duty to do so. If you discover an error please contact us at questions@foavc.org . It would be very helpful if you could either copy the link of the application in question in your email or at least reference its place in our list as well as describing the error you have uncovered. FOAVC will attempt to address the problem as soon as possible and we thank all in advance who may contact us.

UPDATE: March 20, 2016: As of this date FOAVC has now finished consolidating its list of applications so as reflect as best possible, the most accurate representation of the public record of state applications for an Article V Convention. Earlier this month FOAVC published two summarizations of applications parsed by amendment subject (www.foavc.org/StateApplications/Amendment_Subject.htm) and by numeric count of applying states (www.foavc.org/StateApplications/Numeric.htm). According to Article V, the only correct method of count is a numeric count of applying state legislatures in sets of two thirds of the several state legislatures with no other terms or conditions. To the best of our information no one has ever presented the state applications in sets of two thirds so as reflect how many sets of applying state legislatures have been submitted applications to Congress thus requiring the consequential convention calls. As of this date, the public record of applications shows Congress is obligated to call TEN conventions.

UPDATE: October 23, 2016: As of this date FOAVC has confirmed that Congress has now recorded the necessary 34 applications to cause a convention call. Further details can be read at: www.foavc.org/reference/file92.pdf .

UPDATE: January 29, 2017: With the beginning of the 115th Congress, the House of Representatives renewed the Stivers Rule which authorizes the House Judiciary Committee to continue to gather and post state applications (and rescissions) on the Internet. As they have been made available, FOAVC has posted the appropriate link of the application provided by the committee on this page matching the record of complied by FOAVC. FOAVC will continue to post such links as they become available. The House changed the rule slightly in 2017. Previously the House listed date and state. It has now added "Designation" showing whether the application is an application or a rescission. As FOAVC has maintained this same practice since it began its list in 2008, no change is anticipated in the FOAVC list.

UPDATE: April 9, 2017: CRH_2629-NV-Ratification of ERA Amendment; Congressional Record erroneously lists as application for an Article V Convention; see also: CRS_S2361.

FOAVC will provide updates to this information as it becomes available.

Hundreds of Article V Applications from all 50 states (click on links below to view an image and click on the image to enlarge it (depending on browser); NOTE: CR=Congressional Record, Pg=Page, Yr=Year):