Snyder lobbied and testified before more than 40 state legislatures in a campaign to get the states to force a constitutional convention to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment. By 1979, the effort to push the states to support an amendment had made serious progress with 29 of the 34 states required for a constitutional convention. Working at the federal level proved challenging, but several successes were achieved in the early 1980s. On May 19, 1981, the Senate Judiciary Committee, for the first time, approved the proposed constitutional amendment by a vote of 11-1. At the time, Snyder declared: "”This is really a great day for the American taxpayers. The fiscal affairs of our country are about to be afforded the same safeguards as our Constitution freedoms ... and may be as crucial to protecting those rights.”"