THE 27TH AMENDMENT by T. Edwin Perry
Thanks to the Constitution, the United States has three distinctive branches of Government: The Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial. Each branch watches over the other two, but are independently responsible for very specific tasks.
The responsibility of the Congress is to write laws, and these laws include everything from Spending Money to Declaring War, but every law written must conform to the Constitution. If a law is written that violates the Constitution, it is rendered void and the Congress has to go back to the beginning.
But our Founders were well aware of the fact that the Constitution wasn’t a perfect document. It didn’t cover everything, but it did do one thing consistently, and that was to restrict the Powers of Government.
Almost immediately after the completion and ratification of our Constitution, our Founders got to work on writing Amendments, which modify or clarify the Constitution, and carry with them the full weight of the Constitution. To pass an Amendment, two-thirds of both houses of Congress must agree with it, which we ALL know is a very difficult thing to do. (Think “Healthcare Reform” and the 60 vote Supermajority in the Senate. Guess what, that’s NOT ENOUGH VOTES!) Then, after the Congress passes the Amendment, the States have to RATIFY the Amendment, and three-fourths of the States have to approve the Amendment for it to take effect. No Ratification, no Amendment: Period!
Well, as I was working on my “Special Project” involving the Constitution, I discovered the 27th Amendment. This Amendment was successfully Ratified in 1992, becoming a part of our Constitution. The Amendment is short & sweet, clearly written, and limits the ability of the Congress to increase its rate of pay. It says “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.”
Now, this is a pretty clear amendment. If the Congress passes a law to give themselves a pay raise, it doesn’t count for them unless they get re-elected to the position. Sounds like a great idea, right, especially considering that it was Ratified and put into effect in 1992. Here’s the interesting part, thought: This Amendment was approved by Congress in 1879!
That’s not a typo. This Amendment was originally intended to be part of the Bill of Rights, the first Amendments to be Written, Approved and Ratified by our Founders! Unfortunately, the Ratification part didn’t happen at the same time as the other 10 Amendments, so we had to wait until, in 1982, an Economics Student attending the University of Texas at Austin named Gregory Watson was looking for a topic for his term paper and discovered this little gem. He got a “C” on the paper, but my respect for working to get it Ratified!
Considering how out of control our Congress has become in regards to their spending, it’s impressive that our Founders were aware, over 200 years ago, of the risk posed by the greed of individuals with the power to increase their pay with no oversight by the People. More impressive, still, that someone had the courage to see that we received the Final Gift of our Founders: Control over our Congress.
I’m telling you about this Amendment as a reminder of what ONE PERSON can accomplish when it comes to protecting ourselves from an out of control Government, and it’s all thanks the Constitution, the ultimate gift of our Founders.
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