RSS Feed
News
Doc of the Day: The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
05/07/10
The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on May 7, 1992—more than 200 years after it was originally proposed. The amendment—which reads “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened”—effectively limits Congressional pay increases.
Although the amendment ranks as the most recent change to the Constitution, it also has the longest history. What finally became the 27th Amendment was first proposed in 1789 as an article in the Bill of Rights, but it failed to pass the required number of states. It languished until the early 1980s, when an aide to a Texas legislator launched an ultimately successful campaign to promote its passage.
Read the U.S. CONSTITUTION