Q2 Amending Updates: Organizational Collaboration Is Bearing Fruit

I’m crowing here (like the raspy voices of the birds outside my window) about the collaboration agreement I pitched at Academy of States 2.0 in San Diego in 2021. Most of the active amending organizations presented there together, itself a first. Most signed on to my simple agreement: avoid public bickering and cooperate wherever possible. Adherence has been remarkably scrupulous. Why avoid airing dirty laundry and strategic differences? Because opposing forces are many times more powerful and because our shared objectives far outweigh our disagreements.

Here are the Q2 fruits of this increasing collaboration:

The tipping point is at hand.

How do tipping points work? Like Ernest Hemingway wrote about how bankruptcy happens, gradually, then suddenly. Like Graham Platner’s non-viability as a candidate this week. First step is that things become obvious, then opinion gatekeepers get clubbed over the head with the obviousness.

State legislatures first became alarmed about growing national debt way back in the 1970s during our prior bout with painful, government-induced inflation. As of 1979, thirty-nine (39) states had applied for an amending convention on debt. Over the past three Presidential Administrations, center-right finance experts have been sounding the alarm as we approached, then exceeded 100% debt/GDP. Amply credentialed think tankers have settled on the term “debt crisis” to describe where we are right now.

During Q2, no less than center-left tribune, The Atlantic, published these two feature articles:

On June 3, center-right business establishment bellwether, the American Enterprise Institute, co-hosted an all-star forum focused on how to address the national debt crisis. The key beachhead achieved here: the event mainstreamed consensus that only a constitutional amendment can restrain Congress’ appetite for debt and that the states must force this to happen by using their Article V power to scare Congress into proposing the needed amendment. Big credit is due to Balanced Budget Now for making this happen.

On July 3, Newsweek published a lengthy explanatory editorial, From $71 Million to $39 Trillion—U.S. National Debt’s 250-Year Climb. More crowing: economist Steve Hanke is quoted and identified as a Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation (FFSF) board member.

This week, the Compact for America Education Foundation released the annual update to its Debt Default Clock, a visualization of twelve factors measuring the U.S. government’s proximity to default. We’ve slid this year from 3 minutes to 2 minutes until midnight. “Midnight” is when the country’s finances begin to disrupt the bond market and the broader economy. Another of the twelve factors is perilously close to slipping into fail status: of every new dollar of federal borrowing, 66 cents now goes to paying interest on existing debt. “Default” in the U.S. might begin like the bond market’s rejection of British debt that took down PM Liz Truss in 2022, followed by punishing inflation and interest rate spikes, then a global depression.

To sum up present understandings, the debt crisis is real. It is causing painful inflation. An amendment is needed to restrain Congress’ addiction to debt. On the cusp of mainstream consensus: because Congress will not propose the needed amendment, the states must litigate to enforce their equal constitutional power to propose it.

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Here is evidence that consensus on the need for state action is close:

This week, without disclosing who was present or what was said, Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation (FFSF) had our single most substantive-yet meeting. In attendance were a state Attorney General with standing, that state’s Solicitor General, three sitting members of Congress (two Rs and one D), two FFSF board members, and our in-state lead. You can guess at what the members of Congress said by watching this 3-minute video.

Coming soon on October 2-3, Harvard Law School will host V the People, Constitutional Amendment for Democratic Change, a forum involving constitutional scholars and amending activists. Larry Lessig will introduce and Jill Lepore will keynote. Conference panelists on all sides of the issue will present and interact. FFSF chair Dave Walker and I will both be among the panelists. I predict that academic consensus will shift in our direction.

Q2 Shout Outs.

American Promise chalked up two milestone wins this past quarter. Republican Congressman Tom Barrett (MI-7) introduced H.J Res.191, the Constitutional Campaign Finance Reform Amendment, which would restore to the states and to Congress power to set reasonable rules around money in politics, protect free speech rights, and legally distinguish between actual humans and artificial entities like SuperPACs and AIs. Barrett’s notable move here is responsive to ground gains by American Promise in its recent red-state legislative endorsements of a campaign money amendment. Utah, Idaho, and Oklahoma now count among twenty five states having called on Congress to propose a constitutional amendment like Barrett’s.

The Supreme Court’s June 30 NRSC v. FEC decision, removing any limit on political party coordinated campaign expenditures, further concentrates power in the hands of national party bosses. Those objecting to the nationalization of all close elections from Congress down to school board have one more reason to support Barrett’s proposed amendment. Disclosing my potential bias here as a board member, American Promise is the hands down winner over the past year in organizational and strategic excellence in the amending movement.

Convention of States, while not booking any new state Article V applications in Q2, COS gets consistent credit for maintaining the amending movement’s largest and most persistent volunteer force which is active in at least half the states. Twenty of the needed 34 states have now passed Article V resolutions for proposing amendments to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power and jurisdiction, and impose term limits on its officials and members of Congress. COS application resolutions remain alive for 2026 in MA, MI, NJ, NY, OH, and PA.

Art V Task Force. This almost completely under-the-radar organization operates under the premise that, in failing for decades to perform its non-discretionary duty to call the convention to propose an FRA in 1979 when a sufficient number of states had applied, Congress has effectively ceded to the states authority to assemble in convention. Here is the Task Force treatise on the matter.

The Task Force’s Q2 win is bi-partisan introduction of SCR1164 in the South Carolina legislature, the first-yet resolution asserting that, in the absence of Congressional action, the states may unilaterally call an FRA amending convention. Leading this is longtime Article V champion and South Carolina state senator Rex Rice.

SCR1164 bears the fingerprints of collaboration and includes the strategies of the Article V Task Force, Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation, and the National Federalism Commission.

If passed SCR1164:

• Stipulates (1) that a sufficient number of states have applied for a convention with subject matter limited to federal fiscal responsibility; (2) that documentation as to this sufficiency has been submitted to Congress; (3) that House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington has recognized both receipt and sufficiency in his ringing House floor statement; (4) that post-1979 rescissions by the states do not void Congress’ continuing obligation to call the amending convention; (5) that, since 1979, Congress has failed to perform its non-discretionary obligation to call; (6) that Congress has no authority to interfere with use of Article V by the states; and, (7) that Congress has no power to interfere with application counting and aggregation determinations, delegate selection and instruction, convention procedures, or with the ratification process for any proposed amendments, other optionally selecting Mode of Ratification.

• Should Congress fail to call, the South Carolina legislature requests that the South Carolina Attorney General immediately file a declaratory judgement action with the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Should Congress not respond to this resolution, the South Carolina legislature suggests that the convention host state announce to Congress and to the legislative leaders of the remaining states the time and location for the amending convention.

• Offers South Carolina as the host state and Charleston, South Carolina as the convention location.

• Makes South Carolina the first state to adopt the newly unveiled National Federalism Commission Compact for a Safe and Equal Convention for Proposing Amendments. This compact would take effect upon its adoption by the 26^th state and would enforce agreement among Compact states that (1) all convention decisions be made on a one-state-one-vote majority basis, and (2) convention subject matter be limited to that identified in the combined applications of at least two-thirds of the states, in this case limited to the subject of federal fiscal responsibility. Note: this compact is supported by multiple Article V organizations and provides yet another layer of protection against the hypothetical “runaway convention.”

Ken Ivory, Utah state representative and longtime Article V champion, is profiled in this Stateline feature story about the brewing resurgence of federalism. Hats off also to Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman who is working centrist vineyards to advance state authority under our dormant system of shared sovereignty.

The State Legislators Article V Caucus newsletter. Sign up for their monthly updates on Article V legislative progress (and lack thereof) in every state.

And, ZERO Article V rescissions so far in 2026. Rescission advocates need to retreat to a cave somewhere and meditate on the extreme damage to our nation posed by giving Congress de facto power to block every amendment on any subject.