CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Convention of States project will once again ask the West Virginia Legislature to pass a bill supporting a gathering of the country’s sovereign states to discuss and possibly propose Constitutional Amendments on legislative term limits, a balanced budget, and limiting the powers of the federal government.

This time, they’ll do it with the endorsement of the West Virginia GOP Executive Committee.

“We want to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, limit the terms of office for it’s officials, and impose fiscal restraints on the federal government,” Jay Taylor, Legislative Liaison for West Virginia in the Convention of States project, said during an interview on the MetroNews-affiliated “The Mike Queen Show” on the AJR News Network.

Four states have passed bills expressing their support for such a convention: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Alaska.

According to Taylor and his colleague Robert Berry, these conventions are expressly authorized in Article V of the U.S. Constitution and are limited in scope and power. They can only be used to discuss proposing amendments based on what is approved by State Legislatures. They also don’t have the power to adopt amendments.

“The states as sovereign have never needed a Constitution’s permission to call a Constitutional Convention,” Convention of States Regional Director Robert Berry said. “They can do that any time they want. The only reason to invoke Article V is to self-limit the discussion to nothing more than the proposing of amendments. Remember, that’s proposing, not ratifying.”

The portion of Article V that Convention of States highlights states, “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.”

Berry said the erosion of state’s powers continues to play a big role in their quest for a convention.

“We all know the Constitution is a document that sets up a bunch of checks and balances,” Berry said. “That power dynamic between the states and the federal government has been completely flipped, and now the states have to come crawling to the federal government. It was never intended to be that way.”

“I personally can not think of an amendment that limits the power of the federal government that would be bad,” Taylor said.

Berry said the establishment of checks and balances are what make this kind of convention theoretically non-intrusive.

“It really only has the power to propose things,” Berry said. “It has no power of it’s own. So it makes suggestions or proposals.”

Berry and Taylor both recognize the long climb towards passing any type of these Constitutional amendments. Berry said with the stringent requirements for passing a Constitutional Amendment, no one need be worried about possible overreach.

“You need three quarters of the states to get a ratification anywhere,” Berry said. “Nothing really frivolous comes out of this process. An amendment has to have just massive support to make it through that process.”