Proposal to let state legislatures pick U.S. Senators instead of voters
H.J.Res. 198 — Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the seventeenth article of amendment. · Filed by Keith Self (R-TX) · 9 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 25, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This proposal would repeal the 17th Amendment. The 17th Amendment lets voters pick U.S. Senators directly. If this proposal passes, state legislatures would pick senators instead. Current senators would keep their jobs. Only future Senate elections would change.
Who it affects
All voters would lose the right to vote for U.S. Senators. State legislatures would gain the power to pick senators.
One thing to notice
The source says this change would reverse a reform from over a century ago.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
9 cosponsors: 9 Republicans.
- Jun 25, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 25, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $110,700 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 27 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Keith Self, who sponsored the bill, received $190,631 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Emergency Nurses Association — $110,700 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- 17th Amendment — The rule added to the Constitution in 1913 that lets voters pick U.S. Senators.
- state legislatures — Groups of elected officials who make laws for each state.
- repeal — To cancel or remove a law or rule.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,351 characters) on Oct 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,580 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 9, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-26.
“Proposal to let state legislatures pick U.S. Senators instead of voters” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hjres198/simple Report an error
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