Eagle
Forum National Constitutional Issues Chairman
Janine Hansen, 775-397-6859, director@nevadafamilies.org
February 25, 2026, In the Year of
Our Lord
Please
share with friends and family.
We need your help!!!
No hearing this week, but
Contact the Committee.
We anticipate that HCR25, the
Article V Constitutional Amendments Convention for a Balanced Budget will
be heard next week in
the Idaho Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee. The
Committee meets on Mon. Wed. & Fri, at 1:30 pm.
CONTACT: 4 members of the Senate Committee:
Senators:
Daniel Forman: Home (208) 332-1405, Statehouse (208) 332-1405
Josh Keyser: Home (208) 332-1354, Statehouse (208) 332-1354
Brian Lenney: Home (208) 614-1289,
Statehouse (208) 332-1329
Doug Ricks: Home (208) 557-9665, Statehouse (208) 332-1301
Copy and Paste emails:
DForeman@senate.idaho.gov, JKeyser@senate.idaho.gov, BLenney@senate.idaho.gov, DRic
Other members in the whole Senate can be contacted below.
Information: The testimony in the House Committee and
the debate on the House floor for passage of HCR25 stressed that the purpose of
HCR25 was not to have an Article V Convention for Amendments (which is what
HCR25 applies to Congress for) but to “scare” Congress into
passing a Balanced Budget Amendment themselves by having 33 states apply for
one. The Constitutional trigger for a convention is 34 states. Those favoring
HCR25 said they really didn’t want an Article V Convention. This is a
preposterous argument. It’s like playing Russian Roulette with
the gun pointed at our Constitution and hoping it’s not going to have
a bullet in the chamber to trigger a Constitutional Convention. But if Idaho
votes for an Article V on a Balanced Budget Amendment or any other issue Idaho
just put another bullet in the chamber.
MESSAGE: Please vote no on HCR25 an Article
V Constitutional Convention on a Balanced Budget Amendment. Please don’t play
Russian Roulette with our Constitution by having Idaho load a bullet in the
chamber as a way of scaring Congress into acting.
Idaho gets 41% of its revenue from the Federal government. When
Idaho legislators continue to vote to receive more federal money and mandates,
how can they say they support a balanced federal budget? The only way to
balance the federal the budget is to raise taxes or cut spending. There is no
requirement in the Balanced Budget Amendment to cut spending and it is set
aside in case of an emergency.
(Or better yet write your own message.) More
information below.
Please Contact these Idaho Senators who are not on the
Committee:
*Senate members added:
Ben Adams: Home (208) 546-9393, Statehouse (208) 332-1336
*Carl J. Bjerke, Bus (208) 704-0925 Statehouse (208) 332-1421
Van Burtenshaw: Home (208) 332-1342, Statehouse (208) 332-1342
Kevin Cook: Home (208) 521-6776, Statehouse (208) 332-1358
Codi Galloway: Home (208) 614-2634, Statehouse (208) 332-1407
*C. Scott Grow: Home (208) 332-1334 Statehouse (208) 332-1334
Dave Lent: Home (208) 521-0716, Statehouse (208) 332-1313
Doug Okuniewicz: Home (208) 918-1495, Statehouse (208) 332-1338
Copy and Paste Emails for these Senators:
BAdams@senate.idaho.gov, CBjerke@senate.idaho.gov,
VBurtenshaw@senate.idaho.gov, KCook@senate.idaho.gov, CGalloway@senate.idaho.gov, SG
Text of HCR025: https://legislature.idaho.gov/
A Balanced Budget
Amendment Just Won’t Work
Like We’d Like It To Work
By, Janine Hansen, Eagle Forum National Constitutional Issues
Chairman,
director@nevadafamilies.org, eagle@eagleforum.org
Leading the Pro Family movement since 1972, Pro Life, Pro
Constitution and Pro Limited Government
Idaho receives 41.08% of its state revenue from the Federal
Government. Other states receive like amounts. Wyoming receives
56.43%, Alaska 50.83%, Arizona 47.44%, Michigan 38.66%, and Connecticut at the
lowest receives 31.56%. No Balanced Budget Amendment or Convention of States
imposing “fiscal restraints” can ever be achieved until the Red and Blue States
reject Federal funding and their mandates. https://smartasset.com/data-
Eight Red States dominate the top ten states receiving the
largest percentage of Federal money. Idaho ranks 6th. A
State delegate to an Article V Convention would never vote for a Balanced
Budget Amendment or Convention of States “fiscal restraints” knowing their
state would lose a huge portion of their state revenues.
State Legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, continue
to vote for Federal Mandates and money. How can they
honestly say they support limiting spending by the Federal Government when they
continue to vote to take more money from the Feds?
The only way to balance a budget is to raise taxes or
cut spending? There is no requirement in Article V Balanced Budget applications
or in Convention of States applications that prohibits tax increases and in
case of “emergency” the balance budget requirements would have to be set aside.
In 2012 the National Republican Committee adopted a Resolution
opposing all Article V Constitutional Convention applications and for good
reason. Their Resolution still stands.
The Balanced Budget sounds very good to conservatives. We wish
there was some way to reign in the out-o- control spending of the Federal
Government. However, the Constitution is not the problem. The Federal
Government has ignored the Enumerated Powers listed in the Constitution and
spends money on countless things that are not authorized by the Constitution,
like education. If a Balanced Budget Amendment was in the Constitution, it
would make matters worse by actually constitutionally authorizing Federal Spending
outside of the Enumerated Powers.
An Article V Convention should be of great concern especially to
conservative states like Idaho, because all previously
proposed rules for an Article V Convention by the U.S. Congress include
representation based on the formula of the Electoral College, which is 1
delegate for each Congressional District and 2 delegates for U.S. Senate seats.
Unlike the original Constitutional Convention in which each state had one vote,
a new Constitutional Convention will mean that Idaho will have 4
delegates while California will have 54 delegates and New York will have
28. As a conservative that is very scary!
“Between 1973 and 1992, 22 bills were introduced in the U.S.
House and 19 in the U.S. Senate that sought to establish a procedural framework
that would apply to an Article V Convention…The Senate…passed the ‘Federal
Constitutional Convention Procedures Act,’ on two separate occasions; as S 215
in 1971 and as S 1272 in 1983.” Source Congressional Research Service, April
11, 2014.
With all of these concerns about a BBA, the greatest concern is
that an Article V Constitutional Convention cannot be limited.
Phyllis Schlafly the founder of Eagle Forum often quoted Chief
Justice Warren Burger as the highest authority in the United States to ever
speak out on a Constitutional Convention. He stated: “I have also repeatedly
given my opinion that there is no effective way to limit or
muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make
its own rules and set its own agenda. Congress might try to limit the
Convention to one amendment or to one issue, but there is no way to assure that
the Convention would obey. After a Convention is convened, it will be
too late to stop the convention if we don’t like its agenda…”
http://www.eagleforum.org/
In addition, in 2015 the New Jersey Law Journal reported
that Supreme Court Justice “Scalia called it
‘a horrible idea’ to hold a constitutional convention in this age of special
interests.”
What can we do with an out-of-control Federal Government? Elections
are a big answer. And State Legislators can refuse
federal mandates and federal money. One encouraging sign is that
States have realized they can push back against Federal Bullying.
What else do we RISK? California, which will be
a participant in an Article V Constitutional Convention, passed in September of
2023 an application for an Article V Convention which completely guts
the Second Amendment. Eagle Forum has long contended that an Article V
Constitutional Convention for proposing amendments would result in the loss of
our Second Amendment Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms. This
California Article V application was rescinded last year when they rescinded
all previous Article V applications, in fact, like Idaho 15 other states have
rescinded all previous Article V applications. However, California’s actions do
not diminish their Anti-Second Amendment agenda. They will participate in any
Article V Convention.
In addition, we know the Electoral College would
be in jeopardy because already 17 states and the District of Columbia have
passed the National Popular Vote Compact. In this world saturated by the “woke”
agenda we also risk losing our Freedom of Speech and the Free
Exercise of Religion. Free Speech and Religion are obstacles to the
imposition of the Radical Left’s view of their Socialist Society.
The Balanced Budget Amendment won’t work. We must reject a very
dangerous Article V Constitutional Convention which jeopardizes our precious
fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both
houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution,
or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several
states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in
either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several
states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other
mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no
amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and
eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth
section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be
deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
Congressional Research
https://www.everycrsreport.
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