Joe Barton: “That is not the Committee on the Judiciary. But if I could, I would like to talk about your principle of majority rule.…”

“That is not the Committee on the Judiciary. But if I could, I would like to talk about your principle of majority rule. I think you said that there were 10 States, or 10 percent of the population had 34 Senators. I am going to just read the presentment clause in the Constitution. It says: Every bill shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States. ``Shall have passed.'' It does not say ``shall have passed by a majority,'' or ``shall have passed by a supermajority.'' It just says ``shall have passed.'' In the original Constitution there were 7 two-thirds supermajority requirements: Conviction in impeachment trials, article II, section 3, clause 6; expulsion of a Member of Congress, article I, section 5, clause 2; override of a Presidential veto, article I, section 7, clause 2, quorum of two-thirds of the States to elect the President, article II, section 1, clause 3; consent to a treaty, article II, section 2, clause 2; proposing constitutional amendments which is what we are doing today, article V; and State ratification of the original Constitution, article VII. Since that time, there have been 3 additional two-thirds supermajority vote requirements added to the Constitution, which brings the number to 10.”