Skip to content

Knowledge, Authority, and Transparency Amendment

Establishing a Constitutional Foundation for Federal Candidate and Officer Knowledge Assessment

Published April 2026

Based on Rev 1.0 of the Knowledge, Authority, and Transparency Amendment

The Knowledge, Authority, and Transparency Amendment establishes a constitutional foundation for the assessment and public disclosure of the knowledge possessed by persons who seek or exercise federal public authority. It constitutionalizes the Federal Candidate Assessment Office as a permanent institution of the federal government, places the office's independence and core functions beyond the reach of ordinary legislation, and extends knowledge assessment requirements to candidates for federal elected office and to key officers in the presidential succession line.

The Amendment does not restrict who may seek or hold federal office. It is a transparency mechanism. No minimum score is required for ballot access, confirmation, appointment, or service. Its purpose is to provide voters and the Senate with objective information about what candidates and officers know -- and to protect that information function from legislative erosion for as long as the Amendment stands.

The Amendment is designed to operate in conjunction with the Federal Elections Modernization Act, which provides the statutory infrastructure for examination administration. KATA constitutionalizes the principles that statute cannot permanently protect on its own.

Key Components

  • Preamble (prefatory) -- Anchors the Amendment's purpose in plain language: transparency without gatekeeping, and a permanent institution that may be strengthened but not abolished except by the people through the constitutional amendment process.

  • Purpose and Foundational Principles (Part I) -- States the Amendment's animating purpose, establishes the non-qualifying principle and transparency function as foundational, and defines the scope of the assessment system across elected candidates and executive officers.

  • The Federal Candidate Assessment Office (Part II) -- Constitutionalizes the FCAO's existence, independence, and governance principles, including multi-branch appointment distribution, partisan composition limits, for-cause removal protections, supermajority decision thresholds, and dedicated funding insulation.

  • Elected Candidates (Part III) -- Requires all federal candidates to complete office-specific knowledge assessments before appearing on any official ballot, establishes the highest score rule, mandates public disclosure on ballots and in official election materials, and reaffirms the non-qualifying principle as applied to elected office.

  • Succession and Executive Officers (Part IV) -- Requires the Vice Presidential candidate to complete the Presidential assessment before the general election; requires the first and second officers in the presidential succession line and any designated survivor to complete the Presidential assessment within one hundred eighty days of assuming their positions; constitutes a ratchet floor that Congress may expand but not reduce.

  • Core Principles and Constitutional Floor (Part V) -- Consolidates the Amendment's non-negotiable principles in a single Part: content neutrality, objective answerability, bias prohibition, permanent non-qualifying character, public access to study materials, institutional durability, and the permanence of the Office.

  • Statutory Relationship (Part VI) -- Establishes the Amendment's supremacy over implementing legislation, preserves existing statutory frameworks to the extent consistent with the Amendment, requires Congress to enact conforming legislation, and closes the repeal-without-substitution gap.

  • Transition and Effective Date (Part VII) -- Provides a two-year implementation window, attaches constitutional protections to the FCAO immediately upon ratification, and establishes transition schedules for elected candidate and succession officer requirements.

Documentation

See the full amendment text, overview, and policy rationale for complete details.

Download this document (opens on GitHub -- click the download button)

Last revised April 2026

Prepared by Albert Ramos for The American Policy Architecture Institute