House lawmakers are advancing a proposal to ask voters to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution to 60 percent.
The idea comes three years after state voters approved Medicaid expansion, and less than a year after they rejected an abortion rights amendment.
Rep. John Hughes, R-Sioux Falls, is bringing the proposal. He says changes to the state’s governing document should be harder.
“Public policy belongs in our statutes,” Hughes said. “Public policy that’s expressed in the constitution should only be changed by more than fifty percent plus one.”
In 2018, voters rejected a similar proposal to raise the threshold to 55 percent.
This is the second constitutional amendment question House lawmakers are sending to the state Senate to place on the 2026 ballot.
On Tuesday, the House approved a question to allow the state stop providing expanded Medicaid benefits if the 90 percent federal match goes down.
