Isabella Carter
The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, also known as the Congressional Compensation Act of 1789, took 202 years to be ratified. It was proposed by the first Congress in 1789, along with 11 other amendments, and was finally ratified in 1992. The amendment states that any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress may take effect only after the next election of the House of Representatives has occurred. The long delay in ratification was due to the amendment being largely forgotten until 1982, when a student at the University of Texas at Austin wrote a paper on the subject, sparking a campaign to get the required three-quarters of states to ratify it.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Amendment Number | 27th Amendment |
| Amendment Name | The Compensation Amendment |
| Amendment Purpose | To reduce corruption in the legislative branch by requiring an election before a congressperson's salary increase takes effect |
| Amendment Text | "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened." |
| Original Proposal | 1789 |
| Ratification | 1992 |
| Time Taken to Ratify | 202 years and seven months |
| Key Figures | James Madison, Gregory Watson |
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What You'll Learn
The 27th Amendment
> "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened."
In other words, members of Congress are not allowed to raise or lower their salaries during their current session. Any pay raise or cut can only take effect for the Congress that follows a sitting Congress. This amendment was proposed by James Madison, who did not want Congress to have unlimited power over its pay but also did not want the President to control congressional salaries.
In 1982, a college undergraduate student, Gregory Watson, discovered that the amendment could still be ratified as Congress had not stipulated a time limit for ratification. He started a grassroots campaign, writing to state officials and arguing that the states could still ratify the proposed amendment. In 1983, Colorado ratified the amendment, followed by Maine in 1984. In 1985, five more states ratified it, and by 1992, the required 38 states had ratified the amendment. On May 20, 1992, Congress declared the ratification to be legal, and the 27th Amendment officially became part of the Constitution.
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James Madison's proposal
In 1789, James Madison, then a member of the House of Representatives, proposed 19 amendments to the federal Constitution, which were consolidated by the Senate into 12 amendments. These were approved by Congress and sent to the states by President Washington. Madison's proposal included the following:
- Alterations to the preamble to make it clearer that all ultimate power derives from the people.
- Changes to wording in Article Two regarding the number of Representatives and how many people they could represent. Madison proposed capping House seat sizes at 50,000.
- A proposal that pay raises voted on by Congress couldn't come into effect until after the next election. Madison did not want Congress to have unlimited power over its pay, nor did he want the President to control congressional salaries. Instead, he proposed that an election had to happen before any pay raise could take effect.
- Further discussion of the enumeration of powers, which became the bulk of the 9th and 10th amendments.
- Madison wanted to clearly spell out that each branch of government had clear, distinct roles.
- Madison's proposal also included that "No State shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases."
Of the 12 amendments, 11 were ratified, with the 12th becoming the 27th Amendment in 1992, over 200 years after it was first proposed.
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203-year ratification
The 27th Amendment to the US Constitution, also known as the "Madison Amendment", took 203 years to be ratified. It was finally ratified in 1992, 203 years after it was proposed by Congress in 1789.
The amendment itself states that:
> "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened."
In other words, members of the US Congress are not allowed to raise or lower their salaries mid-term.
The 27th Amendment has one of the most unusual histories of any constitutional amendment. It was first proposed by James Madison, along with 11 other amendments, 10 of which were ratified in 1791 and became the Bill of Rights. The 27th Amendment, however, failed to be ratified by the necessary three-quarters majority of states.
The amendment resurfaced periodically over the next two centuries, as states ratified it in protest against congressional pay hikes. By 1977, nine states had ratified the amendment, but it was still short of the required 38 states. In 1982, a college student, Gregory Watson, discovered that the amendment could still be ratified and started a grassroots campaign. Watson's campaign was successful, and by 1992, 38 states had ratified the amendment, making it part of the Constitution.
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Gregory Watson's campaign
In 1982, Gregory Watson, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a paper for a government class in which he claimed that the 27th Amendment, which had been proposed in 1789, could still be ratified. Watson's professor gave him a C for the paper, calling the whole idea a “dead letter” issue and saying it would never become part of the Constitution. Undeterred, Watson started a self-financed campaign to get the amendment ratified. He used $6,000 of his own money to sponsor his nationwide effort. He wrote letters to state officials, and the amendment was ratified in Maine in 1983 and Colorado in 1984.
Watson kept pushing, and the Amendment picked up steam. In 1985, five states passed it, and by 1992, the 38 states needed for full ratification had all passed the Amendment. Thus, the three-quarters of the states' consensus required by Article V of the Constitution was finally reached in 1992—more than 202 years after Congress had proposed the Amendment. The amendment was certified as ratified under Article V of the Constitution, and Congress voiced its support of the amendment in a near-unanimous vote.
In 2016, Zach Elkins, a professor in the University of Texas at Austin Department of Government, became interested in Watson's story and began to document its origins. He tracked down Sharon Waite, Watson's former professor, who had left academia in the 1980s to work on her family's citrus farm. Elkins suggested to Waite that they change Watson's grade, and in 2017, the university retroactively awarded Watson an A for his paper.
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Congressional pay
The 27th Amendment, which took 202 years to ratify, addresses congressional pay. The amendment states that "no law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened". In other words, members of Congress are not allowed to raise or lower their salaries during their current term. This amendment was first proposed by James Madison in 1789, along with several other amendments that became the Bill of Rights. Madison's intention was to prevent Congress from having unlimited power over its pay while also not giving the President control over congressional salaries.
The issue of congressional pay has been a topic of debate since the 19th century, with Congress members often facing public disapproval when raising the subject of salary increases. The public tends to view congressional salary increases as a form of corruption. However, it has been argued that higher salaries for members of Congress could make the position more accessible to individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and reduce the incentive for corruption.
Despite the lengthy ratification process, the 27th Amendment has received little publicity since its ratification in 1992. The amendment's revival in the 1980s was largely credited to a college student, Gregory Watson, who discovered that the proposed amendment could still be ratified and started a grassroots campaign. By 1992, the required 38 states had ratified the amendment, and it officially became part of the Constitution.
Since the ratification of the 27th Amendment, there have been ongoing discussions about congressional pay. In 2021, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for salary reform, and salary raises have been included in Rep. Ro Khanna's plan for anti-corruption congressional reform. Additionally, in 2024, lawmakers enacted the No CORRUPTION Act, which addresses pension payments for individuals found guilty of corruption-related offenses.
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Frequently asked questions
The Twenty-Seventh Amendment, also known as the Congressional Compensation Act of 1789, took 202 years to be ratified.
The Twenty-Seventh Amendment states that any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress may only take effect after the next election of the House of Representatives.
The amendment was largely forgotten after being proposed in 1789. It was not until 1982 that Gregory Watson, a 19-year-old student at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a paper arguing for its ratification. This sparked a campaign to get three-quarters of states to ratify the amendment, which was achieved in 1992.
Amendments must be proposed and ratified before becoming operative. They can be proposed by Congress with a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives, or by a national convention called by Congress in response to applications from two-thirds of state legislatures. To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must then be ratified by three-quarters (38) of state legislatures or special conventions.
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