REFERENCE TITLE: constitutional amendment; U.S. senators; repeal

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

Second Regular Session

2026

HCM 2010

Introduced by

Representative Powell

A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL

urging the United States congress to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the requirement for direct election of United States senators.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

To the Congress of the United States of America:

Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, before the passage of the seventeenth amendment to the United States Constitution, on a vacancy in the office of a senator the governor of a state was empowered under article I, section 3, clause 2 of the United States Constitution to fill the vacancy with a temporary appointment until such time as the state legislature convened and selected a replacement; and

Whereas, on ratification of the seventeenth amendment to the United States Constitution, the power to elect senators from each state was passed to the people of each state; and

Whereas, the founders of our republic and the framers of the United States Constitution recognized that, in a republican form of government, the legislative authority should necessarily be predominant; and

Whereas, the people of the State of Arizona view with growing concern the ongoing failure of political will exhibited by the members of the United States Senate with respect to federal issues that are of grave concern to the people of this state; and

Whereas, this lack of responsiveness by the members of the United States Senate to the needs of the states is attributable to the skewing of the legislative checks and balances system originally established by the founders of this country in the United States Constitution as originally adopted; and

Whereas, the people of this state firmly believe that a return to the original structure of the United States Congress is required to restore the balance between states and the federal government and that this nation is best served by returning to the prior constitutional system that provided for each state's legislature to elect that state's United States senators.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

1. That, pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States, the United States Congress propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, to be ratified by the legislatures or by conventions in three-fourths of the several states, as follows:

Amendment XVII, Constitution of the United States, relating to the election of United States senators from the several states, is repealed.

2. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit a copy of this Memorial to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.