[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 64 (Tuesday, May 8, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




RECOGNIZING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIQUE RATIFICATION OF THE 27TH 
              AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

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                          HON. KENNY MARCHANT

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 8, 2012

  Mr. MARCHANT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call attention to an important 
milestone in American constitutional history. This month, May 2012, 
marks the 20th anniversary of the unusual ratification of the 27th 
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which provides 
quite simply that any change in the level of compensation which Members 
of Congress receive from the United States Treasury must take effect 
until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
  This particular constitutional amendment (sometimes referred to as 
the ``Madison Amendment'') underwent the most unorthodox path to 
ratification of any amendment ever successfully incorporated into the 
Federal Constitution thus far in our Nation's history. This amendment 
was originally proposed by Congress on September 25, 1798 but, despite 
the obvious wisdom of the amendment's purpose, it was not fully 
approved by enough State legislatures until 202 years later. When 
lawmakers in more than the required 38 states provided their approvals 
in May 1992, the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was finally 
ratified.
  Altering the United States Constitution was never meant to be an easy 
task. The Founding Fathers wisely composed Article V of the 
Constitution--which sets forth the process for amending it--in such a 
manner as to make changes in the document difficult to accomplish 
without a clear consensus. However, so strong was the common-sense 
appeal of what we know today as the 27th Amendment that State 
legislators of diverse political philosophy were able to agree in a 
bipartisan fashion that such a provision correctly belonged in the U.S. 
Constitution. As a former member of the Texas House of Representatives 
back in the late 1980s, I was privileged to have played a direct role 
myself in the 27th Amendment's idiosyncratic route to ratification. On 
May 25, 1989, I proudly cast a final ``aye'' vote on House Joint 
Resolution No. 6 by which the 71st Texas Legislature endorsed this 
sound and prudent one-sentence addition to America's highest legal 
document.
  Now, two decades after its ratification was duly achieved, it is 
appropriate to reflect upon the lesson which the 27th Amendment has 
taught America, not only about the constitutional amendment process 
itself, but also about citizen action in influencing the law-making 
process. To that end, I respectfully request that a June 1, 1992 
article from People magazine be included in the record at the 
conclusion of my remarks. The focus of this article is a gentleman 
named Gregory Watson, whom I had the pleasure to know during my tenure 
at the State Capitol in Austin while he was employed by a few of my 
colleagues in the Texas Legislature.
  Mr. Speaker, we in the Congress debate every now and then about 
various proposed additions that some of us advocate to the Federal 
Constitution. The extraordinary ratification of its 27th Amendment 
furnishes to us ample evidence that, while perhaps rather time-
consuming, it remains worthy of our attention, and merits utilization 
of our resources, to continue discussion about needed refinements to 
our Nation's great charter.

                  [From People magazine, June 1, 1992]

                       The Man Who Would Not Quit


   A tenacious Texan wins his 10-year fight for a new constitutional 
                               amendment

       No law, varying the compensation for the services of the 
     Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an 
     election of Representatives shall have intervened.
       It only took 202 years, but last week United States 
     Archivist Don Wilson officially certified that the U.S. 
     Constitution has a new amendment. Given the current hostility 
     to Congress, the new measure captured the mood of a fed-up 
     electorate. It prevents Congress from giving itself pay 
     raises retroactively or in mid-term, which it has done from 
     time to time. Despite the new amendment's popularity, it 
     would probably never have become law if 30-year-old Gregory 
     Watson, an obscure administrative assistant to a Texas state 
     legislator, had been a less persistent man. Ten years ago, 
     while a student at the University of Texas-Austin, he began a 
     one-man campaign to enact the Twenty-seventh Amendment. His 
     reason? He got a C on a term paper.
       The paper, for a government class, argued that the 
     amendment could--and should--be passed. At the time, the 
     proposal, originally drafted by James Madison in 1789, had 
     been ratified by only eight states, six of them during the 
     18th century. Watson says his professor felt the amendment 
     was a legal dead letter, even though it had no time limit, 
     and gave him the low mark. ``I was very disgusted,'' he says 
     ``but undaunted.''
       He ran his campaign the old-fashioned way--by mail, writing 
     to legislators in states that had yet to pass the amendment. 
     He spent $6,000--all of it his own money. He refused all 
     outside help. ``I wanted to do it by myself,'' he says. ``I 
     wanted to prove that one person could do it alone.''
       Prove it, he did. On May 7, Michigan became the 38th--and 
     deciding--state to OK the amendment, which had to be ratified 
     by three-quarters of the states in order to take effect. 
     Later that same day New Jersey voted its approval, and on May 
     12, Illinois joined in. Watson, who is single, was jubilant. 
     ``I wanted to show the American people what can be done if 
     they just put forth a little elbow grease,'' he says. ``You 
     can wield a great deal of power, and one person can still 
     make a difference in this country.''

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