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CHEYENNE — A House Joint Resolution that would eventually call for a constitutional convention narrowly passed out of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week.

Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Nathan Winters (R-Thermopolis) was excited about the passage. He was one of five legislators voting in favor of the bill in committee, with four opposed.

Winters said former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma flew in to Wyoming to speak to the committee regarding the resolution.

“This has broad, powerful support. This actually is a very big bill this session. We’ve had a lot of good conversation about it, at least here within the bodies of the Senate and the House,” Winters said.

He said the resolution is there to impose fiscal restraint on Washington, D.C., and it addresses imposing and limiting the size and scope of the federal government and the opportunity to look at term limits for federal judiciary.

As the prime sponsor of the bill, Winters said he has spent a lot of time the past few years researching Article 5 of the constitution.

Article V of the U.S. Constitution states, “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.”

“More and more and more I started to realize that if Washington cannot fix itself and our founders knew that situation would arise so they gave us the means to fix their over reach,” Winters said. “And that’s exactly what Article 5 is. James Madison spoke of it. President (George) Washington spoke of it.”

Winters said Wyoming’s resolution has uniform language that eight other states have already passed. He said about 30 other states have uniform resolutions that will be considered this year. He said there needs to be 34 states making the request and sending it to the president of the Unites States, president of the Senate and Speaker of the House and to the respective state’s Congressional delegation before the constitutional convention can be called.

Winters said what’s amazing is that the balanced budget amendment, which he also supports, has been going since 1983 and has “26-28 states on board.” This one is “already gaining strong momentum,” he said.