Written by: Sarah Johnson | January 21, 2021

By: Sarah Johnson

This week we’ll take a Closer Look at some of the more interesting Joint Resolutions proposed so far related to elections and service in the United States government.

Campaign Financing

US HJRes1

Introduced on January 4th, 2021, this resolution proposes a constitutional amendment authorizing Congress and the states to set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections. The amendment grants the power to implement and enforce this amendment by legislation enacted by Congress or individual states. Through enacted legislation, Congress and states would be allowed to distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities. Any artificial entities they create they would be able to prohibit them from spending money to influence elections.

The 2020 Election was the most expensive federal election on record. According to Open Secrets, a whopping $14 billion was spent on the federal election – double the previous presidential election (2016). A little less than half ($6.6 billion) was spent on the presidential race and $7.2 billion was spent on Congressional contests. According to Follow the Money, $2.5 billion was spent on candidates and ballot measures in state elections.

Elections

US HJRes14

Introduced on January 11th, 2021, this joint resolution proposes an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the electoral college and provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States. This past year, we saw the debate over whether or not the electoral college should still have a place in our society intensify. For more information on the electoral college, visit this post from 2016 when Trump won the election via the electoral college, but lost the popular vote (Clinton won the popular vote with 65,844,954 (48.2%) while Trump received 62,979,879 (46.1%)). The resolution states a few interesting items:

  • Whereas the Founders of the Nation established the electoral college in an era of limited nationwide communication and information sharing
  • Whereas the electoral college is premised on an antiquated theory that citizens will have a better chance of knowing about electors from their home States than about Presidential candidates from out of State
  • Whereas the development of mass media and the internet has made information about Presidential candidates easily accessible to United States citizens across the country and around the world

US HJRes5

Introduced on January 4th, 2021, this resolution proposes an amendment to the Constitution protecting the right of citizens to vote. It would grant U.S. citizens who are 18 years of age or older a right to vote unless they are serving a sentence for a felony in a correctional facility at the time of an election. Currently, some states disallow individuals from voting, either temporarily or indefinitely, after incarceration for a felony. For more information about felon disenfranchisement, read Time Outlasting Crimes? Is Felony Disenfranchisement Fair? and more recently, Florida “Poll Tax” Found Unconstitutional.

Congressional Service

US HJRes9 and US HJRes12

Introduced on January 4th, 2021, these joint resolutions propose an amendment to the Constitution to limit the number of terms that a Member of Congress may serve. US HJRes9 limits the number of terms a Member of Congress may serve to four in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate. US HJRes12 would limit House Members to three terms and limit Senators to two terms. US HJRes12 also states that members of the House or Senate who fill a vacancy and serve more than half a term — more than one year for a representative and more than three years for a senator — will have that counted as one term toward their total terms in office. No terms beginning before the date of ratification would be counted.

US HJRes7

Introduced on January 4th, 2021, this resolution proposes an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to prohibit Members of Congress from receiving compensation during a fiscal year unless both Houses of Congress have agreed to a concurrent resolution on the budget for that fiscal year prior to the beginning of that fiscal year. This is in response to a trend we have seen over the last few years where the government is forced to shut down due to Congress’ inability to reach a compromise on budgetary legislation. During these shutdowns,   hundreds of thousands of federal employees are asked to work without pay or to stay home, but Congress still receives their paychecks because Article I, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution allows the lawmakers to still get paid their salaries during these times.

Presidential Pardons

US HJRes4

Introduced on January 4th, 2021, this joint resolution proposes an amendment to the Constitution limiting the pardon power of the President. The amendment prohibits the President from granting a pardon or reprieve to himself or herself, to family members or members of the administration, to paid campaign employees, to a person or entity for an offense motivated by an interest of any of those people, or to a person or entity for an offense directed by or coordinated with the President. The amendment also invalidates pardons issued for a corrupt purpose. This comes in response to much conversation over the last year, but especially the last few months, of whether or not Trump will pardon himself and his family for possible crimes. With Trump officially out of office, many of the pardons he issued would violate this change to the Constitution if passed.

The Supreme Court

US HJRes11

Introduced on January 4th, 2021, this joint resolution proposes an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that the Supreme Court of the United States be composed of nine justices. The short resolution appears to be in response to conversations which intensified over the last year related to expanding the court. The current number of justices, nine, is not actually mandated by the US Constitution. This resolution attempts to add an amendment requiring the number to be limited at nine, thus prohibiting any attempt to “pack the court”.

Cover Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash

 

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