Georgia Lawmakers Propose Repealing the Seventeenth Amendment

Earlier this month six Georgia lawmakers, Representatives Dustin Hightower (R), Mike Dudgeon (R), Buzz Brockway (R), Josh Clark (R), Kevin Cooke (R) and Delvis Dutton (R) introduced legislation that would repeal the Seventeenth Amendment. The Seventeenth Amendment ensures that senators will be selected by voters rather than chosen for them by state legislatures.

House Resolution 273 states that "WHEREAS, the United States Senate was designed to protect the rights and interests of the individual states, and the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment would help to prevent the many unfunded mandates and unconstitutional laws passed onto those states by the federal government."

Representatives from other states have also expressed support in repealing the Seventeenth Amendment. Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) wrote, "The American people mistakenly empowered the federal government during a fit of populist rage in the early twentieth century by giving it an unlimited source of income (the Sixteenth Amendment) and by changing the way senators are elected (the Seventeenth Amendment)."

Media Resources: Think Progress 2/20/13; 11/2/2010; Georgia General Assembly HR 273

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