Amendment Twenty-seven to the Constitution was ratified on May 7, 1992. It forbids any changes to the salary of Congress members from taking effect until the next election concludes. The official text is written as such: No law, varying the compensation for the
services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened. Despite being the most recent addition to the Constitution, it is among the first proposed amendments to exist in American history. In response to concerns that the Constitution did not have enough protections for the rights of the states and individual citizens, Representative and future President James Madison supervised the creation of a list of twelve
potential amendments to be added to the Constitution. One of the proposed amendments would have the salaries of Congress members not change until after the next corresponding election was over. Originally meant to be added to Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution, the proposed amendment was designed to prevent corruption in the Legislative Branch, since none of the Congress members would be paid more in their salaries before being voted out of office. Ten of the proposed amendments, excluding
the Congressional finance proposal and one other, were accepted and subsequently ratified in 1791. The proposed amendment faded out of general memory until 1982, when University of Texas at Austin student Gregory Watson wrote a political science essay theorizing that it was still “live” and could still be added to the Constitution. Unsatisfied with the “C” grade that the paper received, Watson launched a campaign of letter-writing to state legislatures across the country. During his
campaign, Watson found out that Virginia, Ohio, Wyoming, and Kentucky had ratified the proposed amendment at different times from 1791 to 1978, with the more modern ratifications being done as an act of protest against Congressional acts that raised the pay rates for elected officials. Watson’s campaign gained greater traction in 1983 and 1984, with Maine and Colorado becoming the first new states to ratify the old proposed amendment in direct response to his campaign. Michigan became the
thirty-eighth state to ratify the amendment on May 7, 1992, thereby making it the Twenty-seventh Amendment, two-hundred years after it was originally created. In 2016, after Watson’s old government professor was tracked down by UT Austin’s government department, she agreed to change the grade for his essay from a “C” to an “A.” The Twenty-seventh Amendment has faced very little litigation since its ratification. In the federal courts, it has been frequently determined that the amendment has no bearing on cost-of-living adjustments issued by Congress. Although the pay rates for members of Congress are still not allowed to be changed until after the general elections are held, fluctuations in salary that are designed to meet cost-of-living requirements are not under the same obligation. The Twenty-seventh Amendment is unique for the time span between its creation and its ratification, the lobbying campaign that brought it back into the public consciousness, and the rediscovery of seemingly long-lost political actions made with it in the distant past. Written by Nicholas J. Dilley, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum Post navigationThere’s nothing particularly extraordinary about the content of the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. In full, it stipulates that “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” In other words, members of the United States Congress are not allowed to raise or lower their salaries mid-term. That might seem like a common-sense regulation, but its path to becoming law was anything but conventional. From its original proposal to its ratification in 1992, the 27th languished for 202 years and seven months—longer than any Constitutional amendment in American history. Perhaps even more remarkable, its revival was largely credited to a Texas university student who only became aware of it while researching a school paper. The story of the “compensation amendment” dates to the first session of Congress in 1789, when James Madison introduced a mid-term pay raise ban as one of several amendments to the Constitution. The Constitutional Convention had previously decided that Congress would set its own pay rate, but Madison and other critics maintained that the rule carried a potential for political misconduct. “There is a seeming impropriety in leaving any set of men without control to put their hand into the public coffers, to take out money to put in their pockets,” he noted during discussion of the issue. Supporters considered the compensation amendment a roundabout method of allowing voters to weigh in on congressional pay hikes, but opponents countered that legislators could be trusted to grant themselves a fair and reasonable salary. Some even argued that lawmakers might reduce their pay to a pittance in an attempt to curry favor with their constituents. Congress approved Madison’s Constitutional amendments in September 1789, but while 10 of them later became famous as the Bill of Rights, the compensation amendment failed to win ratification by the necessary three-fourths majority of the states. For the next two centuries, it hovered in political limbo, resurfacing only periodically during public outcries about lawmakers’ salaries. In 1873, for example, the Ohio state legislature ratified the amendment to protest a congressional pay hike dubbed the “Salary Grab Act.” A century later in 1977, Wyoming followed suit after Congress gave itself another pay increase. By then, a total of nine states had ratified what would later become the 27th Amendment, but it was still well short of the required 38 state total. Portrait of James Madison. (Credit: Public Domain) The compensation amendment would likely have become a mere footnote of history if not for a young student named Gregory D. Watson. In 1982, the 20-year-old University of Texas at Austin sophomore happened upon the story of the lost amendment while conducting research for a government class. “This one pertaining to congressional pay raises immediately leaped off the page to me,” he later told the Austin American-Statesman. Sensing that he had unearthed an interesting topic, Watson wrote a term paper asserting that the compensation amendment had no expiration date and could still be added to the Constitution if the required number of states ratified it. Despite his enthusiasm, however, his professor didn’t buy his argument. When he got his paper back, he found he had received a “C” grade. Scroll to Continue Disappointed, Watson decided to prove his case in the most extreme way possible: he started a one-man campaign to have the amendment added to the Constitution. Though burdened by a job as an aide to a Texas state legislator, he spent the next several months sending letters to members of the U.S. Congress in the hope of recruiting supporters. He achieved his first breakthrough in 1983 when one of Maine’s senators forwarded his proposal to the state legislature, which promptly ratified the amendment. The following year, the state of Colorado also threw its support behind the measure. Buoyed by his early successes, Watson spent several thousand dollars of his own money on a new letter-writing campaign to state legislators across the country. Thanks in part to fortunate timing—Congress had been chastised for giving itself multiple pay raises during the 1980s—his cause eventually won wide bipartisan support from politicians and activist groups. Five states ratified the 27th amendment in 1985, and nearly 20 others joined in by the end of the decade. Finally, on May 7, 1992, Michigan became the 38th state to ratify the 27th Amendment. After over 200 years, James Madison’s proposal had crossed the three-fourths finish fine. (Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Watson—who later described the ratification as the happiest day of his life—told the New York Times that he always knew in his “heart of hearts” that he would succeed. “The American people want a Congress that is honest, that has integrity,” he said at the time. “This Amendment is one vehicle by which some degree of decorum can be restored.” Even after the 27th Amendment was ratified by three-fourths of the states, there were still many who doubted that it would actually become law. A number of legal scholars argued that the amendment had expired after being shelved for so long, while other critics claimed that existing statutes made it unnecessary. Nevertheless, when the Archivist of the United States reviewed the measure, he concluded that the 27th Amendment had met all the necessary requirements. Following a vote in Congress on May 20, 1992, it officially became the law of the land. Several other would-be amendments have been proposed since 1992, but to date, the 27th remains the most recent addition to the Constitution. Gregory Watson, meanwhile, has continued to work in the political field. Along with serving on the staff of several Texas lawmakers, he spearheaded a 1995 campaign to persuade the state of Mississippi to belatedly ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Watson also received some personal vindication regarding the college assignment that kicked off his quest to resurrect the 27th Amendment. In early 2017, following a request from his former professor, the University of Texas at Austin officially changed his term paper grade from a “C” to an “A.” When was the 27th Amendment ratified?With no time limit on ratification, the Twenty-seventh Amendment was ratified in May 7, 1992, when Michigan approved it.
What was the amendment in 1992?No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.
How many years did it take to ratify the 27th Amendment?From its original proposal to its ratification in 1992, the 27th languished for 202 years and seven months—longer than any Constitutional amendment in American history.
When was 27th Amendment first proposed?The amendment was introduced in Congress in 1789 by James Madison and sent to the states for ratification at that time. It was not until 1992 however, after public displeasure with repeated congressional pay increases, that the required three-quarters of the states ratified the measure.
|
