The Iowa House State Government narrowly passed a resolution calling for a Convention of the States on Wednesday. House Joint Resolution advanced through the full committee 12-11.
Republican State Rep. John Wills said the application for convention must be passed by at least 33 states and the application passed by Iowa is the same or at least similar to the applications passed in about 20 other states.
The convention would be tasked with focusing on the budget, returning powers to the states and imposing term limits on Congress.
“Those are the only three topics that could be discussed at a convention called with this application for a Convention of States,” Wills said.
Delegates at the convention would vote on whether to send amendments to state legislatures for ratification. Any amendments gaining that level of support at the convention would need 38 state legislatures to support them in order to be added to the Constitution.
Wills said there is no way it will be a runaway convention. The current Constitution will not be canceled and replaced.
“That just simply cannot happen,” Wills said.
Democrat State Rep. Adam Zabner spoke against the resolution due to concerns a balanced budget amendment would impact Social Security. He also said the close to 20 Iowans who spoke against the resolution in subcommittee covered a wide spectrum on the political spectrum.
Republican State Rep. David Young joined all the Democrats in opposing the resolution. Republican State Representatives Cindy Golding and Michael Bergan passed on the first vote and then voted against it after the resolution had passed.
