Two U.S. Constitution amendment proposals pass Florida House on first day of session

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The House passed two amendment proposals to the U.S. Constitution Tuesday, relating to term limits and the federal budget.

HCR 703 by Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island, and HCR 693 by David Borrero, R-Sweetwater, both passed 80-33.

HCR 703 is intended to require that the national government balances the federal budget through an enforced constitutional amendment. HCR 693 also encourages an amendment that would establish term limits for members of Congress.

Both Sirois’ and Borrero’s bills were each accompanied with two amendments sponsored by Democrats that all failed.

Legislators had 20 minutes of questioning and 40 minutes of debate for each piece of legislation.

“Washington’s current rate of spending is unsustainable and corrective action must be taken,” Sirois argued on the House floor while his bill was being considered.

“Florida’s families and small businesses depend on stability in the market place,” he continued. “Future generations have the right to invest in their own aspirations. Our radically expanding debt creates a distraction at home and is perceived as instability by our nation’s adversaries.”

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, expressed concerns that if a convention was called to amend the U.S. Constitution, there would be no way to prevent delegates from including other topics and issues into the proposal.

Sirois emphasized that the resolution specifically states it is only calling for a convention to “exclusively” address balancing the budget.

Borrero argued for his term limits bill by addressing his worries with the federal government and how it has failed the American people.

“You can not fix a broken D.C. with the same people who created these problems,” he said.

“Incumbents contiune to get re-elected. It’s not because voters love them so much, it’s because they have unfair advantages,” he added.

“Incumbents get $9 of lobbyist donations to every $1 that a challenger gets,” Borrero said. “Of course we know, we’re all elected here, we have years of name recognition and name ID that challengers don’t have. That’s not fair. Members, our federal government has failed us, and we have allowed it.”

Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, introduced similar concerns about the term limits resolution potentially being used to pass a constitutional amendments related to other issues.

“I can certainly state our judicial process and the integrity in it would guarantee that our House concurrent resolution would not consider or take up other subjects and affect other subjects in a call for a convention,” Borrero reassured the body.

The term limit bill’s analysis explained that although many states, including Florida, passed similar legislation in the early 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the only way to impose term limits would be nationally, through the U.S. Constitution.

Similarly, with Sirois’ bill, Florida previously passed resolutions in 2010 and 2014, according to the bill analysis, related to the same issue of balancing the federal budget.

The reason for the reintroduction was to update the legislation’s wording in order to fit with the 27 other states that have passed similar calls for a convention.

The balanced budget proposal passed its committee assignment favorably with only three members voting in opposition. Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, and Rep. Joe Casello, D-Boynton Beach were the three “nay” votes.

The term limits proposal also passed favorably in its committee assignment with no documented vote record.

Florida has had term limits for various elected officials, including the governor, the governor’s cabinet and state representatives. The limits were implemented in 1992 after the citizens of the state voted overwhelmingly in support, with nearly 77%.