Texas 2015 - 84th Regular

Texas House Bill HB98 Compare Versions

Version 1 (Old)

Version 2 (New)

Old	New	Differences
1	1	84R20579 TJB-F
2	2	By: Flynn, King of Parker, Simmons, Bell, H.B. No. 98
3	3	Laubenberg, et al.
4	4	Substitute the following for H.B. No. 98:
5	5	By: King of Parker C.S.H.B. No. 98
6	6
7	7
8	8	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
9	9	AN ACT
10	10	relating to the Texas Balance of Powers Act.
11	11	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
12	12	SECTION 1. (a) This Act shall be known as the Texas Balance
13	13	of Powers Act.
14	14	(b) The legislature finds that:
15	15	(1) The people of the several states comprising the
16	16	United States of America created the federal government to be their
17	17	agent for certain enumerated purposes and nothing more.
18	18	(2) The Tenth Amendment to the United States
19	19	Constitution defines the total scope of federal power as including
20	20	only those powers specifically delegated by the Constitution to the
21	21	federal government. Those powers not explicitly delegated by the
22	22	Constitution to the federal government are reserved to the states
23	23	or to the people themselves.
24	24	(3) Each power delegated to the federal government by
25	25	the United States Constitution encompasses only that power as it
26	26	was understood at the time it was delegated, subject only to an
27	27	expansion or limitation of that power by a subsequent amendment to
28	28	the Constitution.
29	29	(4) The United States Constitution authorizes the
30	30	United States Congress to exercise only those powers enumerated in
31	31	Section 8, Article I, of the Constitution, as well as certain other
32	32	powers delegated to Congress by subsequent amendments to the
33	33	Constitution. Article VI of the Constitution makes supreme the
34	34	Constitution and federal laws enacted pursuant to the Constitution,
35	35	further requiring that public officials at all levels and in all
36	36	branches of government support the Constitution.
37	37	(5) Paragraph 3, Section 8, Article I, of the United
38	38	States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress only
39	39	the specific power to regulate commerce with "foreign nations, and
40	40	among the several states, and with Indian tribes." This provision
41	41	was never intended to authorize the federal government to assume
42	42	any power beyond the regulation of transactions in those three
43	43	specific categories. Through vastly distorted interpretations of
44	44	the meaning of the Commerce Clause not authorized by the
45	45	Constitution or an amendment to the Constitution, the legislative,
46	46	executive, and judicial branches of the federal government have
47	47	adopted and implemented countless measures not authorized by the
48	48	language or original intent of the clause, many of which usurp the
49	49	duties and responsibilities reserved to the states by the Tenth
50	50	Amendment.
51	51	(6) Paragraph 1, Section 8, Article I, of the United
52	52	States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress the
53	53	power to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
54	54	general welfare of the United States. The General Welfare Clause
55	55	was intended and understood to ensure that Congress, when
56	56	exercising an enumerated power, does so in a manner that serves all
57	57	states generally, and no state or person singularly.
58	58	(7) The final paragraph of Section 8, Article I, of the
59	59	United States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress
60	60	the limited power to make laws "necessary and proper" to carry into
61	61	execution the powers delegated by the Constitution to the United
62	62	States government. Using this clause to expand federal power beyond
63	63	specifically enumerated powers granted by the Constitution
64	64	violates the plain language and original intent of that clause.
65	65	(8) The constitutional limitation on the scope of
66	66	federal power and the reservation of other powers to the states or
67	67	to the people are matters of contract between this state and its
68	68	people, and the United States, as of the date this state was
69	69	admitted to the United States of America.
70	70	(9) The federal government has acted in a manner
71	71	inconsistent with the language, intent, and spirit of the United
72	72	States Constitution in direct violation of the Constitution and the
73	73	contract between this state and its people, and the United States.
74	74	This state rejects the unauthorized and excessive abuse of power by
75	75	the federal government that infringes on the rights of this state
76	76	and its people and that unconstitutionally undermines, diminishes,
77	77	and disregards the balance of powers between the states and the
78	78	federal government established by the Constitution.
79	79	(c) In accordance with the United States Constitution, the
80	80	federal government is denied by this state the power to take any
81	81	legislative, executive, or judicial action that violates the
82	82	Constitution, specifically including those actions that
83	83	unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or disregard the balance
84	84	of powers between the states and the federal government established
85	85	by the Constitution.
86	86	(d) This Act serves as notice from this state to the federal
87	87	government to cease and desist any and all unconstitutional
88	88	activities that are outside the scope of the power delegated to it
89	89	by the United States Constitution, including those activities that
90	90	unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or disregard the balance
91	91	of powers between the states and the federal government established
92	92	by the Constitution.
93	93	(e) This Act calls on all state and local officials,
94	94	especially members of law enforcement, prosecutors, members of
95	95	local governing bodies, the attorney general, and the governor to
96	96	honor their oath to preserve, protect, and defend the United States
97	97	Constitution, based on the original intent of that document unless
98	98	modified by subsequent constitutional amendment, and as such to
99	99	stop unconstitutional federal actions.
100	100	(f) This state and its people retain their sovereign power
101	101	to regulate the affairs of this state, subject only to the
102	102	limitations prescribed by the United States Constitution.
103	103	SECTION 2. Subtitle Z, Title 3, Government Code, is amended
104	104	by adding Chapter 393 to read as follows:
105	105	CHAPTER 393. ENFORCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION
106	106	Sec. 393.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
107	107	(1) "Committee" means the Joint Legislative Committee
108	108	on Constitutional Powers and Enforcement.
109	109	(2) "Federal action" includes:
110	110	(A) a federal law;
111	111	(B) a federal agency rule, policy, or standard;
112	112	(C) an executive order of the president of the
113	113	United States;
114	114	(D) an order of a federal court; and
115	115	(E) the making or enforcing of a treaty.
116	116	(3) "Unconstitutional federal action" means a federal
117	117	action enacted, adopted, or implemented without authority
118	118	specifically delegated to the federal government by the people and
119	119	the states through the United States Constitution.
120	120	Sec. 393.002. JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON
121	121	CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS AND ENFORCEMENT. (a) The Joint Legislative
122	122	Committee on Constitutional Powers and Enforcement is established
123	123	as a permanent joint committee of the legislature.
124	124	(b) The committee consists of the following 14 members:
125	125	(1) seven members of the house of representatives
126	126	appointed by the speaker of the house; and
127	127	(2) seven members of the senate appointed by the
128	128	lieutenant governor.
129	129	(c) Not more than four house members of the committee and
130	130	four senate members of the committee may be members of the same
131	131	political party.
132	132	(d) Members of the committee serve two-year terms beginning
133	133	with the convening of each regular legislative session.
134	134	(e) If a vacancy occurs on the committee, the appropriate
135	135	appointing officer shall appoint a member of the house or senate, as
136	136	appropriate, to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.
137	137	(f) The speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor
138	138	shall each designate one member of the committee as a joint chair of
139	139	the committee.
140	140	(g) The committee shall meet at the call of either joint
141	141	chair.
142	142	(h) A majority of the members of the committee constitute a
143	143	quorum.
144	144	Sec. 393.003. COMMITTEE REVIEW OF FEDERAL ACTION. (a) The
145	145	committee may review any federal action to determine whether the
146	146	action is an unconstitutional federal action.
147	147	(b) Not later than the 180th day after the date the
148	148	committee holds its first public hearing to review a specific
149	149	federal action, the committee shall vote to determine whether the
150	150	action is an unconstitutional federal action.
151	151	(c) The committee may determine that a federal action is an
152	152	unconstitutional federal action by majority vote.
153	153	(d) The committee shall report to the governor and the
154	154	attorney general each federal action that the committee determines
155	155	to be an unconstitutional federal action. The committee may include
156	156	in the report one or more effective and constitutional ways to
157	157	prevent the application of the federal action in this state.
158	158	(e) Not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year,
159	159	the committee shall submit a report to the speaker of the house of
160	160	representatives and the lieutenant governor that lists each federal
161	161	action determined by the committee to be an unconstitutional
162	162	federal action since the committee's previous report. The committee
163	163	shall include in the report one or more recommendations for
164	164	effective and constitutional legislative responses to the federal
165	165	action.
166	166	Sec. 393.004. ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION. The attorney
167	167	general may represent this state or a political subdivision of this
168	168	state in an action regarding the refusal or failure of the state or
169	169	the political subdivision to participate in the implementation or
170	170	enforcement of an unconstitutional federal action.
171	171	SECTION 3. (a) Not later than the 30th day following the
172	172	effective date of this Act:
173	173	(1) the speaker of the house of representatives and
174	174	the lieutenant governor shall appoint the initial members of the
175	175	Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Powers and
176	176	Enforcement established under Section 393.002, Government Code, as
177	177	added by this Act; and
178	178	(2) the secretary of state shall forward official
179	179	copies of this Act to the president of the United States, to the
180	180	speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the
181	181	Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of
182	182	the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this Act be
183	183	officially entered in the Congressional Record.
184	184	(b) Not later than the 45th day following the effective date
185	185	of this Act, the speaker of the house of representatives and the
186	186	lieutenant governor shall forward official copies of this Act to
187	187	the presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states.
188	188	SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
189	189	a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
190	190	provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
191	191	Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
192	192	Act takes effect September 1, 2015.