Each would send delegates to the convention and have one vote. Amendments could pass by a simple majority and would then have to be ratified by the legislatures of at least 38 states.

Michael Farris, founder of Patrick Henry College in Loudoun County and of the Convention of the States Project, told the panel that calling for a convention under Article 5 “is the only mechanism that’s actually in the Constitution” that allows making fundamental changes to how Washington operates.

With Congress at a 13 percent approval rating in a recent Fox News poll and many Americans saying that government has too much power, resolutions calling for a convention of states are currently before more than two-dozen state legislatures, Farris said.

“This is moving at a rapid pace across the country, and I would hope as a Virginian, we would lead on this issue,” said Farris, the 1993 Republican nominee for lieutenant governor.

Not all conservatives and few Democrats are on board with such a measure. Some fear it could lead to a rewrite of the Constitution.

The John Birch Society opposes amending the Constitution because the nation’s present problems are due to “rampant usurpation of powers,” not a defective Constitution, spokesman Bill Hahn said.