22 States Representatives gathered on Tuesday at Arizona Capitol to begin America’s first national convention of states in more than 150 years.

“This is indeed historic”, said Ken Ivory, a member of the Utah Representatives. “This is the first time since 1861 that we've been here, and as of this week we've now eclipsed $20 trillion in national debt."  

The Lawmakers and observers were in Phoenix for Balanced Budget Amendment Planning Convention, this convention will be the first step in amending U.S constitution.

This Proposal will only force federal government to only spend the money it has. All of this is possible because of Article V in the U.S Constitution that is handing over some power to states to propose amendments to US Constitution.

"This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue; this is an American issue, I think," Kansas State Rep. Blake Carpenter said.

But as Oklahoma delegate Gary Banz cautioned during his opening remarks to the convention, "We are not here to write language for a proposed amendment." The goal of this convention is to draft rules for the next step of the process.

"If we have the rules all planned out ready to go, people can look at them," Carpenter said. "I think it makes it a little more tangible for us to get to 34."

A total of 34 states are needed to just get congress to call for an Article 5 Convention. However, getting states to ratify a new amendment is something even hard for law makers. The BBA Planning Convention is at the House of Representatives building at the Arizona State Capitol until Friday.

"There's no Republican or Democrat majority that's 38 states," Idaho State Senator Marv Hagedorn said.

"So to ratify the amendment, you're going to have to get both parties on board for any kind of ratification."

By A.s