Old North News

The North Carolina legislature is in a state of changing gears as the novel 2019 coronavirus pandemic continues to upset normal operations across the nation. With committee meetings put on hold, some key legislative agenda items have sat unattended.

A Workplace Safety Action memo from state leaders said that legislative members will continue to work remotely because "the people's business must go on," but with most lawmakers older than 65, committee gatherings and face-to-face communication have been strictly barred. 

North Carolina state director of the Convention of States (COS ) Joy Ruhmann said that one of the most important pieces of legislature caught in the shutdown is House Joint Resolution (HJR) 390, which supports an application from the COS. This calls for the enforcement of term limits on all members of the federal bureaucracy, further fiscal policing of the federal government and limitations of the overall scope of the federal government. 

Ruhmann said that the COS is working to get 34 states to submit the application, at which point a convention of states could be called, under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. 

"Our mission is to build a grassroots army of engaging grassroots activists and our goal is to bring power back to the states and the people, where it belongs," Ruhmann told Old North News. "We hope to do so by exercising our rights under Article V of the U.S. Constitution to come together in a convention of states to propose amendments to the Constitution."

Ruhmann said even with the legislature's shutdown and important state business not being addressed, the COS will continue its efforts to "build our grassroots army, educating everyone we can on the importance of preserving our rights and freedoms under the Constitution and working to return sovereignty to the states as our Founding Fathers intended."

Even amid the disappointment with how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the country, Ruhmann said that the Convention of States Action team remains optimistic that progress will be made in the future. 

"For now, we're doing all with can to support our neighbors in the midst of the pandemic," Ruhmann said.