TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

WHEREAS, The 1st President of the United States George Washington stated, "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government"; and

WHEREAS, It was the stated intention of the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America that the Congress of the United States of America should be "dependent on the people alone"; and

WHEREAS, That dependency has evolved from a dependency on the people alone to a dependency on those who spend excessively in elections, through campaigns or third-party groups; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) removed restrictions on amounts of independent political spending; and

WHEREAS, The removal of those restrictions has resulted in the unjust influence of powerful economic forces, which have supplanted the will of the people by undermining our ability to choose our political leadership, write our own laws, and determine the fate of our state; and

WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution requires the United States Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments upon application of two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states for the purpose of proposing amendments to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The State of Washington sees the need for a convention to propose amendments in order to address concerns such as those raised by the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) 130 S.Ct. 876 and related cases and events including those occurring long before or afterward or for a substantially similar purpose, and desires that said convention should be so limited; and

WHEREAS, The State of Washington desires that the delegates to said convention shall be comprised equally from individuals currently elected to state and local office, or be selected by election, in each Congressional district for the purpose of serving as delegates, though all individuals elected or appointed to federal office, now or in the past, be prohibited from serving as delegates to the Convention, and intends to retain the ability to restrict or expand the power of its delegates within the limits expressed above; and

WHEREAS, The legislature of the State of Washington intends that this joint resolution be a continuing application considered together with similar applications calling for a convention on this subject, such as those approved by Vermont legislators (2014 Vermont Joint Resolution Senate No. 27, 160 Congressional Record S4331, POM-284) and by California lawmakers (2014 California Assembly Joint Resolution No. 1, 160 Congressional Record S5507, POM-320), and introduced by Montana lawmakers (L.C. No. 0095), until such time as the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states have applied for such a convention and that convention has actually been called by Congress;

NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully request that the people of the State of Washington speaking through its legislature, and pursuant to Article V of the United States Constitution, hereby petition the United States Congress to call a Convention for the purpose of proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America as soon as two-thirds of the several states have applied for a Convention; and

BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Governor of each state, and the presiding officer of each house of each state legislature in the United States, to the Vice President of the United States in his capacity as presiding officer of the United States Senate and addressed to him at the legislative office that he maintains inside the United States Capitol, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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