Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XXVII) has to do with the salaries paid to members of the United States Congress.  

Congress is made of two "Houses," and the members of each House serve different terms (amounts of time in office).  Members of the United States Senate serve six-year terms, and members of the United States House of Representatives serve two years each.  The Twenty-seventh Amendment says that no law can change Congresspeople's salaries until a new two-year term for Representatives starts.

As of 2024, the Twenty-seventh amendment is the last amendment that has been added to the Constitution.  It took longer for the states to ratify this amendment than any other in history.  The 1st United States Congress sent the suggested amendment to the states for their approval on September 25, 1789.  It was not until May 7, 1992, that enough states ratified the amendment for it to be added to the Constitution.  The ratification process had taken 202 years, 7 months, and 12 days  the longest in United States history.

Text
When Congress first proposed the amendment in 1789, this is the text they suggested:

History
On September 25, 1789, the first United States Congress gave a group of 12 amendments to the states for their approval.  Written by James Madison, these were the first 12 Constitutional amendments ever written.  One of them was an amendment about salaries for Members of Congress.  Madison wanted to protect against Congresspeople being able to give themselves raises whenever they wanted to, while they were in the middle of their terms and the people could not vote them out.

In 1791, the states ratified ten of the 12 suggested amendments.  These ten amendments became the Bill of Rights.  However, the states did not ratify the other two amendments out of the 12  including the one on limiting pay for Congresspeople.

 Proposal and ratification 

 Proposal by Congress 
James Madison first proposed this amendment in the United States House of Representatives on June 8, 1789.  On August 24, 1789, the House passed the suggested amendment and sixteen others. The proposals went next to the United States Senate, which made 26 different changes to the House's suggested amendments.  After taking out some parts of the House amendments, and combining others, the Senate approved a package of twelve suggested amendments on September 9, 1789.


Now a committee of House and Senate members had to meet to figure out a compromise and come up with amendments that they could all agree on.  After three days, they had come up with 12 suggested amendments, which they brought back to the full House and Senate.  That same day  September 24, 1789  the House agreed on the 12 proposed amendments.  The next day, the Senate agreed too.  The 12 amendments included the one on Congressional pay.

Ratification by the states

Congress sent the package of 12 amendments to the states on September 25, 1789.  For these amendments to be added to the Constitution, three-fourths of the state legislatures would have to ratify (approve) the amendments.  At the time, there were only 11 states (North Carolina and Rhode Island had not ratified the Constitution yet).  This meant just nine states would have to approve the amendments to add them to the Constitution.

On December 15, 1791, the states ratified ten of the twelve suggested amendments.  These got added to the Constitution together as the Bill of Rights.  However, at this time, only six states had ratified the Congressional pay amendment.  

Over the next 186 years, only two more states ratified the Amendment.  Meanwhile, many more states joined the United States.  This meant that a larger number of states would need to ratify the amendment to get it added to the Constitution, since three-fourths of the state legislatures needed to ratify it, and there were more and more states as time went on.

The states ratified the Amendment in this order:

 Order State Date YearsSince 1789 Notes 1  Maryland  December 19, 1789  0  2  North Carolina  December 22, 1789  0  Reaffirmed (re-signed) July 4, 1989 3  South Carolina  January 19, 1790  1  4  Delaware  January 28, 1790  1  5  Vermont  November 3, 1791  2  6  Virginia  December 15, 1791  2    Kentucky  June 27, 1792  3  Ratification was unknown until 1992; Reaffirmed March 21, 1996 7  Ohio  May 6, 1873  84  Ratified as a protest against the 1873 "Salary Grab Act" 8  Wyoming  March 6, 1978  189  Ratified as a protest against a Congressional pay raise 9  Maine  April 27, 1983  194  10  Colorado  April 22, 1984  195  11  South Dakota  February 21, 1985  196  12  New Hampshire  March 7, 1985  196  State had rejected ratification in 1790 13  Arizona  April 3, 1985  196  14  Tennessee  May 28, 1985  196  15  Oklahoma  July 1, 1985  196  16  New Mexico  February 14, 1986  197  17  Indiana  February 24, 1986  197  18  Utah  February 25, 1986  197  19  Arkansas  March 13, 1987  198  20  Montana  March 17, 1987  198  21  Connecticut  May 13, 1987  198  22  Wisconsin  July 15, 1987  198  23  Georgia  February 2, 1988  199  24  West Virginia  March 10, 1988  199  25  Louisiana  July 7, 1988  199  26  Iowa  February 9, 1989  199  27  Idaho  March 23, 1989  199  28  Nevada  April 26, 1989  199  29  Alaska  May 6, 1989  199  30  Oregon  May 19, 1989  199  31  Minnesota  May 22, 1989  199  32  Texas  May 25, 1989  199  33  Kansas  April 5, 1990  200  34  Florida  May 31, 1990  200  35  North Dakota  March 25, 1991  201  36  Alabama  May 5, 1992  202  37  Missouri  May 5, 1992  202  38  Michigan  May 7, 1992  202  Amendment added to the Constitution: May 7, 1992  New Jersey  May 7, 1992  202  State rejected the Amendment in 1789  Illinois  May 12, 1992  202   California  June 26, 1992  202   Rhode Island  June 10, 1993  203  State rejected the Amendment in 1790   Hawaii  April 29, 1994  204    Washington  April 6, 1995  205  Never ratified the Amendment Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania

Notes

Reference

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Category:1992 in the United States
Category:1990s in law
Category:1789 in the United States