Florida Senate - 2014 CS for SM 368
By the Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability;
and Senator Simpson
585-03743-14 2014368c1
1 Senate Memorial
2 A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
3 applying to Congress to call a convention for the
4 purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution
5 of the United States to provide that every law enacted
6 by Congress shall embrace only one subject, which
7 shall be clearly expressed in its 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, 41 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 Constitution of the United States is the
21 supreme law of the United States of America, touching the lives
22 of every citizen in the several states, but is missing this
23 important 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-fourths
42 thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be
43 proposed by Congress, NOW, THEREFORE,
44
45 Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
46
47 (1) That the Legislature of the State of Florida, with all
48 due respect, does hereby make application to the Congress of the
49 United States pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the
50 United States to call a convention for the sole purpose of
51 proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States
52 to provide that Congress shall pass no bill, and no bill shall
53 become law, which embraces more than one subject, that subject
54 to be clearly expressed in the bill’s title.
55 (2) That this memorial is revoked and withdrawn, nullified,
56 and superseded to the same effect as if it had never been
57 passed, and be retroactive to the date of passage, if it is used
58 for the purpose of calling a convention or used in support of
59 conducting a convention to amend the Constitution of the United
60 States for any purpose other than requiring that every law
61 enacted by Congress embrace only one subject, which shall be
62 clearly expressed in the title.
63 (3) That this application constitutes a continuing
64 application in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of
65 the United States until the legislatures of at least two-thirds
66 of the states have made applications on the same subject.
67 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
68 dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
69 President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
70 United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
71 the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.