Oklahoma Plan to Open D.C. Office Illustrates Mistake of the 17th Amendment
Governor Kevin Stitt, an Oklahoma Republican, announced on Tuesday that he intends to open an office in Washington, D.C., and pick someone to be his liaison to the federal government. Governor Stitt’s spokeswoman, Donelle Harder, said, “Our hope is to have interviews done and have this completed by the end of the year.”
While many other states have also set up these types of offices in the nation’s capital, it is yet another illustration that the 17th Amendment, added to the U.S. Constitution in 1913, during the midst of the Progressive Era, delivered a severe blow to the system of federalism created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution.
The Constitution created a bicameral Congress, with the House of Representatives to represent the people of the United States directly, and a Senate, designed to represent the interests of the various states. At the time of the Constitution’s adoption in...