Idaho Gov. Butch Otter wants to change the U.S. Constitution.
He’s not the only one. So does the governor of Wyoming, plus some Idaho lawmakers.
In a letter dated Feb. 12, 2010, addressed to Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, Otter asks that Anderson consider proposing a resolution in support of distinct changes to the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Otter also suggests that the resolution include changes to the Interstate Commerce Clause.
Otter writes:
Too often we find ourselves bemoaning the erosion of our state sovereignty because of the imposition and intrusion of federal programs. This intrusion is the result of an expansive federal government without boundaries or discipline. If we want change, we must change the very document from which the federal government derives its power – the United States Constitution.
As you know, the Framers envisioned a nation with states empowered to be the laboratories of the republic, for each state to be strengthened rather than depleted by their union, and for the federal government to act only in the areas where its power and authority was specifically and constitutionally delineated.
Otter is following the lead of Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming, who, in a memo to members of his own Legislature, decried the impeding force of the federal government.
Freudenthal writes:
We cannot stand for a government we see today in which special interests engage in sophisticated lobbying which results in the federal government monopolizing commerce, health care, land use, social welfare, education and many, many other programs. We must do what we can to stop this avalanche of federal intrusion.
The result of Otter’s push for a resolution to the federal government is House Concurrent Resolution 60, sponsored by Rep. Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly. The resolution would have no force of law, but, if enacted, would be sent to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Joe Biden, the entire congressional delegation for the state of Idaho, as well as presiding officers of legislatures across the nation.
The text of the resolution outlines the changes Otter and Freudenthal would like to see made. On the 10th Amendment, language would be added to more clearly define the duties of both the federal government and state governments.
From the resolution’s text:
The Idaho Legislature urges Congress to amend the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution as follows: (Changes in bold): “The powers not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This amendment shall be considered by all federal courts as a rule of interpretation and construction in construing any case involving an interpretation of any Constitutional power claimed by the Congress under either the “interstate commerce” or the “necessary and proper” clauses of Section 8, Article I.“
As mentioned before, the resolution also calls on Congress to amend the Interstate Commerce clause of the Constitution.
Again, from the text of the resolution:
The Idaho Legislature urges Congress to amend the Interstate Commerce Clause (Article I, Section
as follows: (Changes in bold): “To directly regulate commerce with the foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes, with no authority in Congress to regulate matters that are primarily intrastate with only an insignificant or collateral affect upon interstate commerce.”
Both houses of the Wyoming Legislature have passed their state’s own version of the resolution. Members of the Idaho House have already introduced Idaho’s own edition of the resolution, and the measure will receive a hearing Thursday in front of the House State Affairs Committee.
Otter said in his letter to Anderson that he will work to push the resolution through other states’ legislatures by working with governors in the Western Governors Association.
(Note: The measure was due a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee Thursday, but was held on the request of Roberts. Committee chairmen Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, said the committee will take up the resolution within the next few legislative days.)
Good for Butch !!! It is about time someone takes some positive action to keep the tentacles of the federal government from choking the life blood from our country. The current powers that are in place in Wash. DC are poised to make even more intrusive inroads into every value we ever held dear.
This proposal by the Governor will be a appreciated step to preserve states rights and be a beginning that will slow the big government takeover that is the fourndation of the current administration.
Amending the constitution is a long and difficult fight. Not only because the the US Congress is full of Democrats, but we also need 2/3rds of the state governments to agree to passage.
That is a long and difficult road but it starts with the first step.
fsc
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So our governor who relentlessly tried imposing a gas tax hike last year, took Federal Stimulus money, and opposes Canyon County’s legislature’s legislation of refining the emissions bill requiring all Canyon County residents to have “smog checks” in order to fix the air quality by .0047%. The reason given for his opposition to Kren’s emission legislation is he didn’t want the Federal Government’s EPA team to come into Idaho and impose stricter emission law. For a proponent of state rights that comment is inconsistent with his support of these resolutions.
Our governor who supports these non binding resolutions is the same governor that doesn’t act. These resolutions are a bunch of rhetoric. I’m sure many in the legislature agree something should be done about the Fed’s violations but when it comes down to it, when you have a Governor that doesn’t want to “poke the tiger” it ceases to have any teeth, e.g. the emissions bill.
Our Governor is a sad excuse to our State. The constitution, provides plenty of problems, not only to the Federal Stimulus money but to the educational system as well. We have to make 16% budget cuts this next year alone, in one district. This all because the senate and house represenatives won’t push away their conservative views and threshold on Idaho. We should make an amendment to the law that states we can’t go into debt, has created more issues then any other law in Idaho right now. Too many people are concerned with hunting wolves instead of our education and the people who are here teaching. They now face salary cuts and our issues run deeper with our current economic failure.
Cheer’s to Otter for Defending the sovereignty of the People of Idaho. We along with the people of this Great Nation have been trampled by repeated abuses of the Constitution as the Congress of the United States has usurped power from this good people without the consent of the people through it’s written constitution. Any decent man should detest any Government that usurps powers not granted to it by the people. I love this Great Nation, and I love this great State, regardless of where we stand on Politics or Role of Government can’t we agree on Constitutional Government, and retain the ideal that the Government derives it’s power by the consent of the Governed (through a written Constitution). I hold to that reality and believe personally that we need to keep Government as close to the people as we can and only let the Federal Goverment do those things which can’t reasonably be done by State and Local Goverment’s.