FRIDAY…finally

On this day in 1789, the United States Congress passed twelve constitutional amendments – the ten known as the Bill of Rights, the Congressional Apportionment Amendment (which was never ratified) and the Congressional Compensation Amendment which languished for many years until it was finally ratified in 1982.

The Congressional Apportionment Amendment would establish the number of seats in the House of Representatives. As it was never ratified by the required number of states, the size of the House of Representatives is now set by statute.

The Congressional Compensation Amendment states that changes to the pay of members of Congress take effect only upon the next election of the House of Representatives. The proposed congressional pay amendment was largely forgotten until 1982, when Gregory Watson, a 19-year-old student at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a paper for a government class in which he claimed that the amendment could still be ratified. He later launched a nationwide campaign to complete its ratification. The amendment eventually became part of the United States Constitution, effective May 5, 1992.