A measure stating Oklahoma’s desire for a Constitutional Convention won final approval Tuesday by the state Senate.
House members passed Senate Joint Resolution 4 last week with amendments, meaning it needed another vote by senators.
Sen. Anthony Sykes was among the 16 "No" votes.
"I do not trust the other state legislatures to be of like mind," Sykes said. "Certainly, Oklahoma is one of the more conservative states in America, and I don't think we can do as good a job as our Founding Fathers did."
Sen. Mike Mazzei told his colleagues a required majority vote for proposed amendments’ ratification will serve as a check and balance.
"If the convention turns out to do a bad job or run away with too many changes, there's just no way that 38 states, 38 bodies like you, are going to ratify something stupid," Mazzei said.
Sen. Nathan Dahm suggested the measure, which mentions a balanced budget amendment, doesn’t go far enough and voted against it.
"This bill deals with appropriated federal dollars, one-third of the budget," Dahm said. "Out of that $3.7 trillion, $2.5 trillion will not be touched under this. That is a major reason for concern."
The measure has been in the works since last February. In all, 34 states must request a convention for Congress to call one. Oklahoma is the 29th.
