Florida Senate - 2014                                     SM 368
       
       
        
       By Senator Simpson
       
       
       
       
       
       18-00478-14                                            2014368__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to call a convention for the purpose
    4         of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the
    5         United States to provide that every law enacted by
    6         Congress shall embrace only one subject, which shall
    7         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 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 United States Constitution makes
   37  provision for amending the Constitution on the application of
   38  the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, calling a
   39  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         That the Legislature of the State of Florida, with all due
   48  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:
   53         Congress shall pass no bill, and no bill shall become
   54         law, which embraces more than one subject, that
   55         subject to be clearly expressed in the bill’s title.
   56         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this memorial supersedes all
   57  previous memorials and concurrent resolutions applying to the
   58  Congress of the United States to call a convention for the
   59  purpose of proposing a single-subject amendment to the
   60  Constitution of the United States and that such previous
   61  memorials and resolutions be hereby revoked and withdrawn,
   62  nullified, and superseded to the same effect as if they had
   63  never been passed.
   64         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this memorial is revoked and
   65  withdrawn, nullified, and superseded to the same effect as if it
   66  had never been passed, and be retroactive to the date of
   67  passage, if it is used for the purpose of calling a convention
   68  or used in support of conducting a convention to amend the
   69  Constitution of the United States for any purpose other than
   70  requiring that every law enacted by Congress embrace only one
   71  subject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title.
   72         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   73  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   74  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   75  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   76  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.