[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 64 (Thursday, April 30, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S2566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-19. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of North Dakota urging the United States 
     Congress to call for a constitutional convention for the sole 
     purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the 
     United States which requires a balanced federal budget; to 
     the Committee on the Judiciary.

                  House Concurrent Resolution No. 3015

       Whereas, Article V of the Constitution of the United States 
     mandates that upon the application of the legislatures of 
     two-thirds of the states, Congress shall call a convention 
     for proposing amendments; and
       Whereas, this application is to be considered as covering 
     the balanced budget amendment language of the presently 
     outstanding balanced budget applications from other states; 
     and
       Whereas, this application shall be aggregated for the 
     purpose of attaining the two-thirds necessary to require the 
     calling of a convention for proposing a balanced budget 
     amendment, but shall not be aggregated with any applications 
     on any other subject; and
       Whereas, this application is a continuing application until 
     the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the states have 
     made applications on the same subject; and
       Whereas, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly deems an 
     amendment to the Constitution of the United States requiring 
     a balanced federal budget to be necessary for the good of the 
     American people: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives of North Dakota, 
     the Senate Concurring therein:
       That the Sixty-fourth Legislative Assembly urges the 
     Congress of the United States to call a convention of the 
     states limited to proposing an amendment to the Constitution 
     of the United States requiring that in the absence of a 
     national emergency the total of all federal appropriations 
     made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the 
     total of all estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year, 
     together with any related and appropriate fiscal restraints; 
     and be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of State forward copies of 
     this resolution to the President and Secretary of the Senate 
     and the Speaker and Clerk of the House of Representatives of 
     the Congress, to each member of the United States 
     Congressional Delegation, and also to transmit copies to the 
     presiding officers of each of the legislative houses in the 
     United States, requesting their cooperation.
                                  ____

       POM-20. A joint memorial adopted by the Legislature of the 
     State of Idaho urging the United States Congress to expedite 
     appropriation of funds to significantly enhance dreissenid 
     monitoring and prevention efforts and to implement the intent 
     of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014; to 
     the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

                     Senate Joint Memorial No. 101

       Whereas, maintaining a healthy suite of economic, 
     environmental and social ecosystem services in aquatic 
     systems is integral to the quality of life in the State of 
     Idaho; and
       Whereas, healthy aquatic habitats provide clean drinking 
     water, flood control, transportation, recreation, 
     purification of human and industrial wastes, power 
     generation, habitat for native plants and animals, production 
     of their foods, marketable goods, and cultural benefits; and
       Whereas, aquatic invasive species, including mussels such 
     as dreissenids, cause irreparable ecological damage to many 
     waters in the United States; and
       Whereas, dreissenids have not yet been detected in the 
     Pacific North-West. The estimated cost to address established 
     populations of dreissenids in the Pacific NorthWest Economic 
     Region is almost $500 million annually; and
       Whereas, the Water Resources Reform and Development Act was 
     signed in June 2014 and authorizes $20 million for Columbia 
     River Basin dreissenid efforts through the Secretary of the 
     Army: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the member of the First Regular Session of the 
     Sixty-third Idaho Legislature, the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives concurring therein, that we respectfully 
     request Congress expedite appropriation of these funds to 
     significantly enhance monitoring and prevention efforts and 
     to implement the intent of the Act; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate be, and she is 
     hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this 
     Memorial to the President of the United States Barack Obama, 
     the United States Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, the 
     President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of 
     Representatives of Congress, and to the congressional 
     delegation representing the State of Idaho in the Congress of 
     the United States.
                                  ____

       POM-21. A resolution approved by the Electors of the City 
     of Watertown, Wisconsin, calling for reclaiming the expansion 
     of the rights of artificial legal entities and the corrupting 
     influence of unregulated political spending; and supporting 
     an amendment to the United States Constitution, stating: only 
     human beings--not corporations, unions, nonprofits, or 
     similar associations--are endowed with constitutional rights, 
     and that money is not speech, and therefore regulating 
     political contributions and spending is not equivalent to 
     limiting political speech; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

                          ____________________