Members of Congress are pushing to repeal the 17th Amendment and elect senators the way the Constitution originally decreed.

Nine GOP House lawmakers have co-signed a joint resolution introduced by Republican Texas Rep. Keith Self to repeal the amendment that mandates that U.S. senators be chosen by direct election. If the resolution passes and is signed into law, it would return the power of electing senators to state legislatures.

Article I Section III of the Constitution originally called for senators of each state to be “chosen by the Legislature thereof.” However, the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, changed the process so that senators are now “elected by the people thereof.”

Self introduced the resolution to repeal the amendment and return power to the states, asserting that the Senate was intended to give the states representation as sovereign entities, according to Self’s June press release.

The release noted that repealing this amendment would give senators incentive to defend state interests.

“The current system has given us six-year politicians more focused on national ambitions and the institution of the U.S. Senate than on the states they serve,” Self said via the release.

The resolution’s cosponsors include Republican Reps. Eric Burlison of Missouri, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Andy Harris of Maryland, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Sheri Biggs of South Carolina, Michael Cloud of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana. 

“Our Founding Fathers designed the Senate to protect state sovereignty and act as a check on federal overreach. If senators are supposed to represent their states, then the states should choose them,” Self said in the press release. “Repealing the 17th Amendment will restore that constitutional balance and make the Senate more accountable to the people of Texas and every other state in the union.”

Clyde, Gosar, Harris, Perry and Biggs did not immediately respond to Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

“As originally envisioned by our Framers, the Senate was a key bulwark of federalism: It was meant to give the states a check on the federal government and moderate the passions of the people. Therefore, it’s no coincidence that over the last century, Washington has concentrated more power in itself and buried the country in debt. If we’re serious about reining in federal power and spending, we should be willing to reconsider the change that, together with the 16th Amendment, has helped fuel its growth more than any other,” Burlison, a co-signer of Self’s resolution, said in a statement to the DCNF.

“The 17th Amendment is arguably the most injurious amendment in history. Big money has twisted our Senate races into circus acts. The Founders knew what they were doing, and We he People should restore the original Constitutional process for election of US Senators,” Higgins, another co-signer of Self’s resolution, said in a statement to the DCNF.

Until the 17th Amendment is repealed, “states can begin moving primaries to their state legislatures, party conventions, or a combination of both,” a spokesperson for Spartz, another co-signer, told the DCNF.

The U.S. adopted the 17th Amendment in the 1910s after states had been facing issues with deadlocks in the election of senators when state Senates and Houses were controlled by different parties – leaving vacancies in the U.S. Senate. Alongside these deadlocks, some states faced “political machines” who had control over state legislatures. This caused senators elected with machine support to be considered their “puppets,” according to the National Archives. Some people at the time also viewed the Senate as a “millionaire’s club” which served “powerful private interests.”

Due to a stalemate in the state legislature electing a senators from Delaware in the 1890s, the state went without one seat of Senate representation for almost two years.

The senatorial election process as outlined in the Constitution became such a difficult process that even some state legislatures submitted petitions to Congress to amend the Constitution to reform the election process, according to the U.S. Senate website. Some states, including Colorado and Louisiana, sent Congress applications for a convention to propose a constitutional amendment for senatorial election reform.

By 1912, one year before the Constitution was ratified to include the 17th Amendment, 29 states were already abiding by their own version of senatorial direct election, according to the U.S. Senate website. The “Oregon Plan” required state legislature candidates to pledge to support the Senate candidate which won the state’s popular vote.

A resolution to amend the Constitution to have direct election of senators first came from the House of Representatives in 1826, just 38 years after the Constitution went into effect. This proposal did not have enough support, and therefore did not pass.

Congress only passed the resolution for the 17th Amendment after at least 287 proposals for the direct election of Senators had been introduced in congress, the U.S. Senate website notes. Support for the amendment grew in the Senate as more senators became elected by direct election in the states.

The resolution to amend the Constitution passed the Senate in a close vote in 1911, according to the National Archives website. The House passed the amendment over a year later, and in 1913, three-fourths of the states ratified the 17th Amendment, making it official.

Self’s resolution to repeal the 17th Amendment revolves around returning to the Founding Fathers’ “original vision for the United States Senate,” according to the press release. The 17th Amendment upsets the proper balance of the U.S. Congress, the press release notes, with the House of Representatives meant to represent the people and the Senate meant to represent the states.

Federalist Paper 62, penned by James Madison or Alexander Hamilton in 1788, argued that the U.S. Senate members being elected by the state legislatures offered a way of “giving to the State governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government.” The author noted its importance in securing the authority of the State government and forming “a convenient link” between the State government and federal government systems.

The authors of the Federalist Papers also believed that the state legislatures electing the senate would have the “advantage of favoring a select appointment” of senators. By confining votes for senators to the state legislatures, the voters “will in general be composed of the most enlightened and respectable citizens,” so they will vote for “those men only who have become the most distinguished by their abilities and virtue, and in whom the people perceive just grounds for confidence,” according to Federalist Paper 64, written by John Jay.

The House of Representatives had attempted to pass similar amendments to the 17th Amendment prior to 1911, but faced resistance from the Senate, according to the Senate’s website. In light of this and continued issues with state legislature elected senators, in April 1911, Victor Berger, the first Socialist U.S. Representative, proposed a resolution that would give the House of Representatives all legislative powers, making all of its enactments “the supreme law.” The House did not pass this resolution.

The only amendment of the Constitution which has been successfully repealed is the 18th Amendment which called for prohibition of alcoholic beverages. It was repealed by the 21st Amendment just 13 years later.

AUTHOR

Faith Miller

Contributor

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