Page One

Welcome to Friends of the Article V Convention

Welcome to Friends of the Article V Convention (FOAVC). Ours is the oldest non partisan national organization dedicated to bringing about an Article V Convention. The constitutional purpose of an Article V Convention is to propose amendments to the Constitution. According to the Constitution, Congress is mandated to call an Article V Convention on the application of 34 states. The Constitution sets no other terms for the call. The states have satisfied this requirement no less than 11 times. Congress has not called a convention and continues to oppose all efforts to call a convention as our top headlines indicate. Whoever controls the amendment process, controls the Constitution.

For this reason many groups spread misinformation about an Article V Convention for their own political purposes. To correct this, FOAVC presents accurate information based on the public record you will not read anywhere else. We believe the people must have accurate information about a convention based on documented facts, not political fabrication in order to make informed decisions. To read more about the purpose of FOAVC please click here.

Please refresh your browser whenever you visit our site. We are constantly updating our information.

January 13, 2019

116th Congress Extends Stivers Rule; Application Count Continues

In a surprising political move, House Democrats, whose majority controls the House of Representatives for the 116th Congress, extended the Stivers Rule in the House Rules on January 8, 2019. In 2015 Congressman Steve Stivers, (R-OH) introduced a rule change in the House of Representatives (House Rule Section 3c) which created a collection of Article V Convention applications through the House Judiciary Committee but not an official list of applications on which to base a convention call. This rule was the first in United States history Congress created any process for counting state applications. Before implementation, the official count of state applications by Congress stood at zero. Since the rule was instigated, the committee has gathered 140 applications containing at least one set of applications representing applications by two thirds of the several state legislatures. (To read the House Rule, click image left to enlarge).

The decision of House Democrats is surprising given Democratic opposition to the proposed Messer bills by former Indiana Republican Congressman Luke Messer led to bottling the bill in the House Judiciary Committee. Messer introduced his legislation H.R. 5306 in 2015 and again in 2016 (H.R. 1742). The purpose of the bill was to provide a permanent methodology for gathering applications sent to Congress by the state legislatures applying for an Article V Convention call. The legislation did not provide a mechanism for issuing an actual call by Congress. Without the Stivers Rule the Judiciary Committee would cease gathering applications effectively preventing any convention call by Congress. With the rule in place, the process continues and now represents bi-partisan support of a convention call.

September 12, 2017
Lack of Rules Stops AVC Movement Cold

Recent discussion with House of Representatives Parliamentarian Tom Wickham, Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) and FOAVC supporters provided the actual reason Congress, despite hundreds of applications from all 50 state legislatures, has never called an Article V Convention. The reason: Congress has no rules in place to count the applications and issue the necessary convention call. Without procedural rules in place no convention call will ever be issued by Congress irrespective of whether state applications contain identical language, address the same subject or are counted numerically regardless of subject and language because no process exists for Congress to count the applications and issue the convention call. You can see a video discussing the problem at this link. (Note: if this link does work on your computer, please use this link.) Further information can be read here.

August 15, 2017

FOAVC Releases First Part of Financials

FOAVC today released the first of a two part investigation into the financial records of the political organizations Compact for America and Convention of States. The first part of the investigation concerns the financial records of Compact for America. Information regarding Convention of States will be released at a later date. The information may be read at this link. Those desiring only brief summation of the investigation may use this link to do so.

As of May, 2017 Congress has reached a count of 39 applying states for an Article V Convention call. The 39 states comprising the committee list can be found here. A map showing the applying states appears below.

Since 2015 the House Judiciary Committee has been gathering applications from the state legislatures for an Article V Convention call and publishing them on its website. As explained elsewhere so-called rescissions do not count as no provision in the Constitution allows states to rescind applications. Further, federal law prohibits members of Congress from removing federal public record. Therefore all state applications are still valid and in full force.

Indeed the full public record of state applications shows the states have submitted sufficient applications to cause several convention calls. Based on the total number of applications in the public record and the fact the committee has failed to record several state applications thus far in its collection, it may be some time before the committee produces a totally accurate and complete list of state applications. The committee has been releasing about 12 new state applications each month.

In 2015 Congressman Steve Stivers, (R-OH) introduced a rule change in the House of Representatives (House Rule Section 3c) which created a collection of Article V Convention applications through the House Judiciary Committee but not an official list. This was the first time in United States history Congress created any process for counting state applications. Before the rule was implemented, the official count of state applications by Congress stood at zero. In the two years since the rule was instigated the committee has managed to gather 140 applications containing at least one set of applications representing applications by two thirds of the several states.

Congressman Messer's bill requires the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) gather all applications from its archives and electronically publish them within five years of enactment of the law. Under current law NARA can refuse to do this, which it has, as it contends the records in question are actually property of Congress rather than NARA. Current law only permits NARA to store congressional records; it is not permitted to conduct searches of those records.

FOAVC has enthusiastically supported the Messer bill. In its latest letter of support FOAVC co-founder Bill Walker explained the urgent need for such legislation. "Within the 140 applications officially recognized by the House Judiciary Committee are applications from two thirds of the states. Whether used in combination with the official count by the United States Senate or by itself, under the terms of Article V, Congress is obligated to call the conventions required based on the official records of Congress. Congress has taken no action to fulfill its constitutional obligation whatsoever. The list of applications already officially acknowledged by the House Judiciary Committee and the United States Senate is attached. The American public has the right to hold elected conventions to consider alterations to our form of government. The record keeping issue is not whether conventions should be called, but how many. Only AVRTA can answer that."