[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 120 (Thursday, July 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2457-S2458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-33. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Hawaii urging the President of the United 
     States to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the Twenty-
     eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of 
     America; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

                  House Concurrent Resolution No. 200

       Whereas, in 1972, the ninety-second Congress of the United 
     States, at its second session, in both houses, by a 
     constitutional majority of two-thirds, adopted the following 
     proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States of 
     America:
       ``JOINT RESOLUTION RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
     AND SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN CONGRESS 
     ASSEMBLED (TWO-THIRDS OF EACH HOUSE CONCURRING THEREIN), That 
     the following article is proposed as an amendment to the 
     Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to 
     all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution when 
     ratified by legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
     States within seven years from the date of its submission by 
     the Congress:
       ``ARTICLE __
       Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be 
     denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on 
     account of sex.
       Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by 
     appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
       Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after 
     the date of ratification.'' ''; and
       Whereas, Article V of the Constitution of the United States 
     sets forth a two-step amending procedure; and
       Whereas, the first step of the Article V amending procedure 
     is proposal of an amendment either by two-thirds vote of both 
     houses of Congress or by a convention called by application 
     of two-thirds of the states; and
       Whereas, the second and final step of the Article V 
     amending procedure is ratification of an amendment by three-
     fourths of the states; and
       Whereas, the Constitution of the United States does not 
     limit the time for states to ratify an amendment; and
       Whereas, to have full force and effect, any substantive 
     change to the Constitution of the United States, such as a 
     time limit on ratification, must be within the text of an 
     amendment, where it can also be approved by states as part of 
     each of the two steps of the Article V amending procedure--a 
     proposal step and a ratification step; and
       Whereas, in the proposal step for the Equal Rights 
     Amendment, the time limit on state ratification was only in 
     the preamble section of the resolution by Congress and not 
     within the text of the amendment presented to the states for 
     state approval; and
       Whereas, in the ratification step, the states ratified only 
     the text of the Equal Rights Amendment; and
       Whereas, a time limit was only approved by Congress in 
     1972, but not subsequently approved by the states and is thus 
     without force or effect; and

[[Page S2458]]

       Whereas, in comparison, when in 1978 two-thirds of both 
     houses of Congress passed the District of Columbia Voting 
     Rights Amendment, a timeline was included within the text of 
     the amendment offered to states for ratification; and
       Whereas, the time limit for the District of Columbia Voting 
     Rights Amendment ended before completion of the second and 
     final step of ratification of the amendment by three-fourths 
     of the states; and
       Whereas, because the time limit was within the text of the 
     District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, that time limit 
     had full force and effect and the amendment expired in 1985; 
     and
       Whereas, in comparison, the text of the Twenty-first and 
     Twenty-second Amendments both include a timeline within the 
     text of each amendment, and such timelines were ratified by 
     three-fourths of the states within the agreed timeline; and
       Whereas, in 1789, by two-thirds vote of each house of the 
     first United States Congress, the so-called Madison Amendment 
     relating to compensation of members of Congress completed the 
     proposal step of Article V; and
       Whereas, approximately two hundred three years later the 
     Madison Amendment completed the ratification step of Article 
     V through ratification by three-fourths of the states; and
       Whereas, in 1992, having met the strict two-step 
     requirements of Article V, the Madison Amendment was 
     published by the Archivist of the United States during 
     President George H.W. Bush's administration as the Twenty-
     seventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; 
     and
       Whereas, following publication of the Madison Amendment, 
     Congress affirmed the Madison Amendment as the Twenty-seventh 
     Amendment of the Constitution of the United States; and
       Whereas, as of January 27, 2020, three-fourths of the 
     states have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment; and
       Whereas, unlike the District of Columbia Voting Rights 
     Amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment does not have a time 
     limit in its text where it would be of full force and effect; 
     and
       Whereas, in contrast to the Madison Amendment, which took 
     two hundred three years to ratify, the Equal Rights Amendment 
     took a mere forty-eight years to ratify; and
       Whereas, the text of Article V of the Constitution of the 
     United States gives the states the power of ratification, not 
     recission; and
       Whereas, Samuel Johnson's dictionary of 1755 defines 
     ``ratify'' as ``to confirm; to settle''; and
       Whereas, Bouvier's Law Dictionary of 1856, considered to be 
     the first American legal dictionary, states that a 
     ratification once done ``cannot be revoked or recalled''; and
       Whereas, James Madison wrote in a July 20, 1788, letter to 
     Alexander Hamilton that ratification is ``in toto and for 
     ever''; and
       Whereas, the various attempts throughout history to rescind 
     the ratifications of the Constitution of the United States or 
     its amendments, including the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and 
     Nineteenth Amendments, have never been honored; and
       Whereas, the Equal Rights Amendment now meets the strict 
     requirements of Article V of the Constitution of the United 
     States and should be added as the Twenty-eighth Amendment; 
     now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-
     second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 
     2023, the Senate concurring, that this body urges the 
     administration of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to publish 
     without delay the Equal Rights Amendment as the Twenty-eighth 
     Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and be it 
     further
       Resolved, That this body urges the Congress of the United 
     States to pass a joint resolution affirming the Equal Rights 
     Amendment as the Twenty-eighth Amendment to the Constitution 
     of the United States; and be it further
       Resolved, That this body calls on other states to join this 
     action by passing the same or similar resolutions; and be it 
     further
       Resolved, That certified copies of this Concurrent 
     Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United 
     States, Vice President of the United States, each member of 
     Hawaii's congressional delegation, and Archivist of the 
     United States.

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