House Bill To Repeal 17th Amendment Would Return Election of Senators to State Legislatures

The House Judiciary Committee is considering a repeal of the 17th Amendment that allows senators to be elected by popular vote. Advocates hope that, by returning that role to state legislatures, to restore the Senate’s role to the one originally laid out in the Constitution — one distinct from the House which reflects the direct will of the people.Congressman Keith Self of Texas introduced House Joint Resolution 198 with eight co-sponsors, all fellow Republicans. It’s the first step in the long process required to add a constitutional amendment, which is the only way to repeal one, something that has only been accomplished a single time.The 18th Amendment in 1919 banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol. In 1933, the 23rd Amendment repealed it because the country judged Prohibition a failure. Mr. Self’s and co-sponsors deem the 17th to also have fallen short of its intent.“Our Founding Fathers,” Mr. Self wrote in a statement announcing his bill, “designed the Senate to protect state sovereignty and act as a check on federal overreach. If senators are supposed to represent their states, then the states should choose them.”President Madison, the Father of the Constitution, wrote in 45 Federalist that “the Senate will be elected absolutely and exclusively by the state legislatures.” Congressman Victor Berger, a socialist from Wisconsin, introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the “obstructive and useless” Senate in 1911.Berger called the Senate a “millionaire’s club,” as this columnist recalled last month in The New York Sun. Yet the 17th Amendment failed to solve the problems he enumerated. Mr. Self’s bill would counter the Democratic Socialists of America’s renewed push to abolish the chamber. The measure would establish senators as the guarantors of state sovereignty.Congressman Eric Burlison, a co-sponsor of the repeal bill, said in a statement that the Senate was designed as “a key bulwark of federalism” to “moderate the passions of the people.” The method of Senate elections was one way the Founders set out to restrain that pure democracy, fearing it would lead to mob rule.“It’s no coincidence that over the last century,” Mr. Burlison said, “Washington has concentrated more power in itself and buried the country in debt. If we’re serious about reining in federal power and spending, we should be willing to reconsider the change that … has helped fuel its growth more than any other.”The Sun, while crusading against the political corruption that inspired the 17th Amendment, came to oppose the legislation as a poor solution. “Don’t Weaken the Senate,” read a headline on May 24, 1911, arguing that the Constitution “is too big a thing to be changed for an untried experiment.”The Sun quoted a Republican of New York, Senator Elihu Root, as warning that direct elections would “result in the deterioration of the personnel of the Senate,” and “keep out … a large, important element well adapted to” its unique duties. Existing abuses, he argued, would be better addressed “by amending the statutes rather than the Constitution.”Giving representation to the states and not just citizens, Madison wrote in 39 Federalist, was the “difference between a federal and national government.” House members, elected for two-year terms, reflect the popular will, while under the original method of appointing senators, the members of the upper chamber represent the interests of their states.Since ratification of the 17th Amendment, voters have to wait to remove senators until the completion of their six-year terms — a long time when passions cool and issues fade. Prior to the amendment, senators acted more as ambassadors and focused on their state’s interests rather than those of the national party. To ensure that senators they favored were appointed, citizens had to pay as much attention to state races as federal ones.“Experiments fail,” Root said, “and experiments succeed.” More than 100 years later, it’s worth asking if the 17th Amendment has helped create a more perfect union or, like Prohibition, made things worse by winnowing the Senate into a less responsive, miniature version of the House — one that’s failing to fulfill the role laid out in the Constitution.

House Bill To Repeal 17th Amendment Would Return Election of Senators to State Legislatures

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