[5] The idea behind this amendment is to reduce corruption in the legislative branch by requiring an election before a congressperson's salary increase takes effect.

North Carolina's ratifying convention proposed several amendments to the Constitution, including the following: "The laws ascertaining the compensation of senators and representatives, for their services, shall be postponed in their operation until after the election of representatives immediately succeeding the passing thereof; that excepted which shall first be passed on the subject."

Madison's original intent was that it be added to the end of Article I, Section 6, Clause 1 of the Constitution ("The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States").

After emerging from committee, the full House debated the issue and, on August 24, 1789, passed it and 16 other articles of amendment.

[11] On September 21, 1789, a House–Senate conference committee convened to resolve numerous differences between the House and Senate Bill of Rights proposals.

[14] This proposed amendment was largely forgotten until Gregory Watson, an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a paper on the subject in 1982 for a political science course.

But in Coleman v. Miller,[20] the court ruled that the validity of state ratifications of a constitutional amendment is a political matter, and thus not properly assigned to the judiciary.

[9] In 2016, Zach Elkins, a professor in the University of Texas at Austin Department of Government, became interested in Watson's story and began to document its origins.

[25][3] In an interview, Waite said, "Goodness, he certainly proved he knew how to work the Constitution and what it meant and how to be politically active, [...] So, yes, I think he deserves an A after that effort – A-plus!

[25][26][27][3] In the same year, the Texas Legislature passed a congratulatory resolution in response to Watson's successful grade change and his overall political participation.

On May 19, 1992, the Twenty-seventh Amendment's certificate of ratification, signed by the Archivist of the United States, Don W. Wilson, on May 18, 1992, was printed and published in the Federal Register.

In certifying that the amendment had been duly ratified, the Archivist of the United States had acted under statutory authority granted to his office by the Congress under 1 U.S.C.

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia scolded Wilson for certifying the amendment without congressional approval.

In Boehner v. Anderson,[38] the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the first COLA was in accord with the amendment because it took effect after the election that followed its vote.

The bill received limited bipartisan support, but concerns were raised that it violated the twenty-seventh amendment saying that Congress may not "vary" the compensation of its members until the next election.