Gov. Abbott on Thursday found one of his top priorities for the current session of the Legislature, a so-called 'Article 5 Convention of States' to come up with new Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, savaged and viciously shouted down by his fellow Republicans, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Several veteran Republican activists took turns urging a State House committee to kill the bill.
Michael Openshaw of Denton said he has been working on behalf of Republican candidates since the days of Barry Goldwater, and he said this is the scariest idea he has ever seen.
"This does open the door to a complete rewrite of the U.S. Constitution, no matter how many limitations you think you're going to put on it," Openshaw said.
Many conservatives said they are concerned that a 'Convention of the States' would quickly 'go rogue' and would be captured by liberal activists and their deep pocketed allies.
"There are large organizations of extremely liberal people who are organized, heavily funded, and ready for this convention," Openshaw said.
Republicans said if Gov. Abbott wants to see abortion, a guaranteed income, housing, health care and Internet services enshrined as guaranteed rights in the U.S. Constitution, this is the best way to make that happen.
Many pointed out that the last time a 'Convention of States' was tried was in 1787, when delegates who were called specifically to 'improve' the Articles of Confederation instead acted on its own initiative to scrap the Articles altogether and come up with an entirely new document, the U.S. Constitution.
They said an Article 5 Convention (which is so named because Article V of the Constitution allows states to assemble and propose new amendments) would write its own rules and would not be subject to any limitations on constraints place on it by the states.
Supporters of the idea, which Abbott has been pushing for for more than a year, say there is no way that Congress would ever agree to approve Amendments to limit their own terms, and impose a balanced federal budget, on their own, which is why the Article V option is included in the Constitution to begin with.
There are two ways to amend the Constitution. One, which is the way all of the existing amendments have been adopted, is for Congress to take the initiative and propose amendments to the states. Then three quarters of all of the states would have to approve them.
The other is through an Article V Convention, which could be convenced by two thirds of the states. Any amendments proposed by the Convention would, again, have to be approved by the Legislatures of three quarters of the states.
Many supporters said if an Article V Convention does in fact happen, Texas needs to be a part of it, so the proposal should be approved for that reason alone.
The bill was left pending in Committee, which increases its likelihood of dying in the Legislature.