Florida Senate - 2013                                   SCR 1818
       
       
       
       By Senator Evers
       
       
       
       
       2-02334A-13                                           20131818__
    1                    Senate Concurrent Resolution                   
    2         A concurrent resolution urging Congress to call a
    3         convention for the purpose of proposing an amendment
    4         to the Constitution of the United States to provide
    5         that every law enacted by Congress shall embrace only
    6         one subject that shall be clearly expressed in its
    7         title.
    8  
    9         WHEREAS, each measure before a legislative body should pass
   10  on its own merits without depending on legislative support for
   11  other unrelated measures to achieve the required number of votes
   12  for passage, and
   13         WHEREAS, a single-subject constitutional provision
   14  addresses this concern by prohibiting a legislative body from
   15  enacting a law that embraces more than one subject, and
   16         WHEREAS, 42 of the 50 states, including Florida, have a
   17  single-subject provision in their respective state
   18  constitutions, and the legislatures and citizens of these states
   19  have benefited from a single-subject requirement, and
   20         WHEREAS, the United States Constitution is the supreme law
   21  of the United States of America, touching the lives of every
   22  citizen in the several states, but is missing this important
   23  provision, and
   24         WHEREAS, our great country is deep in debt and Congress is
   25  currently searching for a solution, and
   26         WHEREAS, a federal single-subject amendment would provide
   27  the means to limit pork barrel spending, control the phenomenon
   28  of legislating through riders, limit omnibus legislation
   29  produced by logrolling, prevent public surprise, and increase
   30  the institutional accountability of Congress and its members,
   31  and
   32         WHEREAS, it is Florida’s hope and desire that Congress will
   33  be able to conduct its business in a more productive, efficient,
   34  transparent, and less acrimonious way with a single-subject
   35  requirement, and
   36         WHEREAS, Article V of the Constitution of the United States
   37  makes provision for amending the Constitution on the application
   38  of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, calling
   39  a convention for proposing amendments that shall be valid to all
   40  intents and purposes if ratified by the legislatures of three
   41  fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three
   42  fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification
   43  may be proposed by Congress, NOW, THEREFORE,
   44  
   45  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida, the House
   46  of Representatives Concurring:
   47  
   48         That the Legislature of the State of Florida, with all due
   49  respect, does hereby make application to the Congress of the
   50  United States pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the
   51  United States to call a convention for the sole purpose of
   52  proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States
   53  to provide:
   54         Congress shall pass no bill, and no bill shall become
   55         law, which embraces more than one subject, that
   56         subject to be clearly expressed in the bill’s title.
   57         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this concurrent resolution
   58  supersedes all previous memorials and concurrent resolutions
   59  applying to the Congress of the United States to call a
   60  convention for the purpose of proposing a single-subject
   61  amendment to the Constitution of the United States and that such
   62  previous memorials and resolutions are hereby revoked and
   63  withdrawn, nullified, and superseded to the same effect as if
   64  they had never been passed.
   65         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this concurrent resolution is
   66  revoked and withdrawn, nullified, and superseded to the same
   67  effect as if it had never been passed, and retroactive to the
   68  date of passage, if it is used for the purpose of calling a
   69  convention or used in support of conducting a convention to
   70  amend the Constitution of the United States for any purpose
   71  other than requiring that every law enacted by Congress embrace
   72  only one subject which shall be clearly expressed in the title.
   73         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this concurrent
   74  resolution be dispatched to the President of the United States
   75  Senate, to the Speaker of the United States House of
   76  Representatives, to each member of the Florida delegation to the
   77  United States Congress, and to the presiding officers of each
   78  house of the several state legislatures.