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Indiana Lawmakers To Attend Next Constitutional Convention Planning Session

Kim Davies
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjd/2502535352

Legislators from Indiana and more than 30 other states will gather in Washington later this month for the next step in a push for a constitutional convention.

The conservative-leaning Assembly of State Legislatures, which formed to lay groundwork for a convention, last gathered in Indianapolis in June to assign committees to hammer out rules for delegate selection and the convention itself.

Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long says they‘ll discuss those drafts December 8 and 9, in hopes of being ready to finalize the convention call next year in Salt Lake City.   

It takes 34 states to force a convention. Long says 25 states, including Indiana, have already requested a convention to consider a balanced-budget amendment, but the meeting will review those resolutions to make sure there are no issues about their wording or when they were adopted.

Long says organizers are determined to limit the convention to a predetermined list of proposed amendments. He says a balanced-budget amendment remains the most likely to make the cut, but the assembly is also looking at giving Congress veto power over some executive-branch regulations, and other steps to curb federal power. Long predicts more than 40 states will eventually endorse the call for a convention.

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