Florida Senate - 2024 (PROPOSED BILL) SPB 7066
FOR CONSIDERATION By the Committee on Fiscal Policy
594-03204-24 20247066pb
1 Senate Concurrent Resolution
2 A concurrent resolution applying to the Congress of
3 the United States to call a convention for the sole
4 purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution
5 of the United States stating that the United States
6 Congress shall make no law applying to the citizens of
7 the United States that does not also equally apply to
8 all United States Representatives, United States
9 Senators, and all members of the federal legislative
10 branch.
11
12 WHEREAS, one of the fundamental underpinnings of a
13 democracy is the rule of law; and
14 WHEREAS, in order for the rule of law to be respected and
15 adhered to by the citizenry, it must be applied fairly and in an
16 equal manner; and
17 WHEREAS, Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment to the
18 United States Constitution reads in part “...nor shall any State
19 deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due
20 process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
21 the equal protection of the laws.”; and
22 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has held that the
23 Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States
24 Constitution requires equal protection under the laws of the
25 federal government; and
26 WHEREAS, in spite of the Equal Protection Clause and the
27 Due Process Clause within the Constitution, over time the United
28 States Congress has chosen on a number of occasions to exempt
29 its members and the federal legislative branch from the
30 requirements of laws it has enacted that apply to all others
31 throughout the United States; and
32 WHEREAS, the United States Congress acknowledged this issue
33 and decided to address it in part by passing the Congressional
34 Accountability Act of 1995, which applied to Congress and its
35 agencies to adhere to the requirements of several laws that it
36 had previously exempted itself from; and
37 WHEREAS, at present, Congress and the federal legislative
38 branch remain exempt from the requirements of many laws Congress
39 has passed; and
40 WHEREAS, having laws passed by the United States Congress
41 apply differently to the general public versus members of
42 Congress and the federal legislative branch is a fundamental
43 unfairness under the rule of law, and violates the spirit of the
44 Constitution’s Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses; and
45 WHEREAS, under Article V of the United States Constitution,
46 on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the
47 several states, the Congress shall call a Constitutional
48 Convention for the purpose of proposing amendments, NOW,
49 THEREFORE,
50
51 Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
52
53 That the Legislature of the State of Florida applies to
54 Congress, under Article V of the Constitution of the United
55 States, to call a convention limited to proposing an amendment
56 to the Constitution which would prohibit the United States
57 Congress from making any law applying to the citizens of the
58 United States that does not also equally apply to all United
59 States Representatives, United States Senators, and all members
60 of the federal legislative branch; and
61 That this application constitutes a continuing application
62 in accordance with Article V until the legislatures of at least
63 two-thirds of the states have made applications on the same
64 subject.
65 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Legislature also proposes
66 that the legislatures of the states comprising the United States
67 apply to the Congress to call a constitutional convention for
68 proposing such an amendment to the Constitution.
69 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this concurrent resolution is
70 revoked and withdrawn, nullified, and superseded to the same
71 effect as if it had never been passed, and retroactive to the
72 date of passage, if it is used for the purpose of calling a
73 convention or used in support of conducting a convention to
74 amend the Constitution of the United States with any agenda
75 other than to propose an amendment to the Constitution which
76 would prohibit the United States Congress from making any law
77 applying to the citizens of the United States that does not also
78 equally apply to all United States Representatives, United
79 States Senators, and all members of the federal legislative
80 branch.
81 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this application be
82 dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
83 President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
84 United States House of Representatives, to each member of the
85 Florida delegation to the United States Congress, and to the
86 presiding officer of each house of the legislature of each
87 state.