The Mississippi legislature is one step closer to consider amending the U.S. Constitution. The resolution was introduced in the Senate that would limit the power of the federal government.
The convention would be made possible under Article V of the U.S. Constitution and 34 states will have to pass resolutions to do so.
Convention of States Mississippi Director Ron Scarbrough said the main issue is about who gets to decide what happens in America. The federal government, or the people. The Mississippi House passed a similar resolution last year to allow for the Convention of the States and while Scarbrough says it’s never over til it’s over, but he believes it is likely to go through.
“You don’t assume anything, but we’ve got the word out to our supporters statewide to get in touch with their representatives and let them know that they still support the Convention Of The States idea,” said Scarbrough. “Last year we enjoyed a 76-42 result in the House and we have no reason to think that we won’t enjoy about the same margin of victory when it comes up again. We have indications that House leadership such as Rules Chairman Jason White and House Speaker Philip Gunn are prepared to see that this does get consideration on the floor of the house. We fully expect another win in the House to put us on track to become the 15th passed state.”
Advocates for the resolution visited the Capitol earlier in the session to voice their support in making Mississippi the 15th state to join the Convention of States. Mark Meckler, President of COS along with Retired Lt. Col. Allen West were in attendance and News Mississippi sat down with them at the time.
“We are going to get the whole country together in a convention and we are going to talk to them about the federal government interfering in our lives,” said Meckler. “There is a fundamental question facing American’s today which is ‘who decides?’ Do we get to decide for ourselves in our families, in our communities, in our churches, or does the federal government tell us what to do? We think the founders were clear. We the people should decide. Today D.C. Decides way too much. So, this is a fight about who decides. When we get a convention, we will decide how much can D.C. do and what can they not do. that’s what this is really all about.”
The Senate resolution does not include language similar to other states’ resolutions to consider term limits during a convention of the states, because according to Scarbrough, the Mississippi legislature would never have passed the resolution with those words in it.
“I am thankful to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves for his leadership in seeing that the resolution came out of the Senate Rules Committee and was given adequate time for a full and free debate on Thursday,” said Scarbrough.
He added that the 32-17 vote in the Senate was largely along party lines, with only one Democrat voting in favor of the resolution.
