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shall be transmitted to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives by the elected presiding officer of the convention. Further proceedings of the convention shall be conducted in accordance with such rules, not inconsistent with this Act, as the convention may adopt.

(b) The Congress shall appropriate moneys for the payment of

all expenses of the convention.

(c) Under such regulations as the President shall prescribe, the Administrator of General Services shall provide such facilities, and each executive department and agency shall provide such information, as the convention may require, upon written request made by the elected presiding officer of the convention.

Procedures of the Convention

SEC. 9(a) In voting on any question before the convention, including the proposal of amendments, each delegate shall have one vote.

(b) The convention shall keep a daily verbatim record of its proceedings and publish the same. The votes of the delegates on any question shall be entered on the record.

(c) The convention shall terminate its proceedings within one year after the date of its first meeting unless the period is extended by the Congress by concurrent resolution.

(d) Within thirty days after the termination of the proceedings of the convention, the presiding officer shall transmit to the Archivist of the United States all records of official proceedings of the convention.

Proposal of Amendments

SEC. 10(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a convention called under this Act may propose amendments to the Constitution by a vote of a majority of the total number of delegates to the convention.

(b) No convention called under this Act may propose any amendment or amendments of a general nature different from that stated in the concurrent resolution calling the convention. Questions arising under this subsection shall be determined solely by the Congress of the United States and its decisions shall be binding on all others, including state and Federal courts.

Approval by the Congress and Transmittal to the
States for Ratification

SEC. 11(a) The presiding officer of the convention shall, within thirty days after the termination of its proceedings, submit the exact text of any amendment or amendments agreed upon by the convention to the Congress for approval and transmittal to the several States for their ratification.

(b) The Congress, before the expiration of the first period of

three months of continuous session following receipt of any proposed amendment, shall, by concurrent resolution, transmit such proposed amendment to the States for ratification, prescribing the time within which such amendment shall be ratified or deemed inoperative and the manner in which such amendment shall be ratified in accordance with Article V of the Constitution: Provided, that, within such period, the Congress may, by concurrent resolution, disapprove the submission of the proposed amendment to the States for ratification on the ground that its general nature is different from that stated in the concurrent resolution calling the convention or that the proposal of the amendment by the convention was not in conformity with the provisions of this Act: Provided further, that the Congress shall not disapprove the submission of a proposed amendment for ratification by the States because of its substantive provisions.

(c) If, upon the expiration of the period prescribed in the preceding subsection, the Congress has not adopted a concurrent resolution transmitting or disapproving the transmittal of a proposed amendment to the States for ratification, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, shall transmit such proposed amendment to the Administrator of General Services for submission to the States. The Administrator of General Services shall transmit exact copies of the same, together with his certification thereof, to the legislatures of the several States.

Ratification of Proposed Amendments

SEC. 12(a) Any amendment proposed by the convention and submitted to the States in accordance with the provisions of this Act shall be valid for all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution of the United States when duly ratified by three-fourths of the States in the manner and within the time specified.

(b) Acts of ratification shall be by convention or by State legislative action as the Congress may direct or as specified in subsection (c) of this section. For the purpose of ratifying proposed amendments transmitted to the States pursuant to this Act the State legislatures shall adopt their own rules of procedure. Any State action ratifying a proposed amendment to the Constitution shall be valid without the assent of the Governor of the State.

(c) Any proposed amendment transmitted to the States pursuant to the provisions of section 11(c) of this Act shall be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years of the date of transmittal or be deemed inoperative.

(d) The secretary of state of the State, or if there be no such officer, the person who is charged by State law with such function, shall transmit a certified copy of the State action ratifying any proposed amendment to the Administrator of General Services.

Rescission of Ratifications

SEC. 13(a) Any State may rescind its ratification of a proposed

amendment by the same processes by which it ratified the proposed amendment, except that no State may rescind when there are existing valid ratifications of such amendment by three-fourths of the States.

(b) Any State may ratify a proposed amendment even though

it previously may have rejected the same proposal.

(c) Questions concerning State ratification or rejection of amendments proposed to the Constitution of the United States shall be determined solely by the Congress of the United States and its decisions shall be binding on all others, including State and Federal courts.

Proclamation of Constitutional Amendments

SEC. 14. The Administrator of General Services, when three-fourths of the several States have ratified a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, shall issue a proclamation that the amendment is a part of the Constitution of the United States.

Effective Date of Amendments

SEC. 15. An amendment proposed to the Constitution of the United States shall be effective from the date specified therein or, if no date is specified, then on the date on which the last State necessary to constitute three-fourths of the States of the United States, as provided for in article V, has ratified the same.

The Convention Method

of Constitutional Amendment:

Its Meaning, Usefulness, and Wisdom

by John T. Noonan, Jr.

Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley

(Comm. on Ways & Means, Calif. State) Assembly, February 15, 1979

The Convention Method

of Constitutional Amendment:
Its Meaning, Usefulness and Wisdom

One of the great American innovations at the founding of our

Republic was a Constitution which could be amended. At the time "it was heresy to suggest the possibility of change in governments divinely established and ensured." To provide in the written instrument itself for change was to take the position in advance that experience would show defects, that change would sometimes be desirable and good, and that the people of the next generation or the twelfth generation later could be as wise and trustworthy as the founding fathers themselves.

The Meaning of the Method

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Two methods of amendment were provided. One was depe on the initiative of Congress, the other on the initiative of the States. The methods were intended to be parallel ways of changing the Constitution. In Madison's words in The Federalist the Article on Amendments "equally enables the general and the State governments to originate the amendment of errors." It was recognized that those in power in the national government might have a disinclination to give up any of their prerogatives, so that it was particularly necessary to leave open the initiative of the States; and so Hamilton pointed out in his Final Plea for Ratification in The Federalist, the second method of Amendment had been provided in order that Congress would be under a "peremptory" duty to call a Convention when two-thirds of the States made application for one.3

You have been told that the second method of amendment provided by Article V of the Constitution is unworkable; that it is "shrouded in legal mystery of the most fundamental sort," that it is full of "fundamental uncertitudes," that it will lead to confrontations between branches of government of "nightmarish dimensions," and that its invocation will lead to trauma for the country.4 Reading these prophecies of doom, I have been reminded

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