Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas House Bill HB74 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	85R968 TJB-F
2	2	By: Flynn H.B. No. 74
3	3
4	4
5	5	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
6	6	AN ACT
7	7	relating to the Texas Balance of Powers Act.
8	8	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
9	9	SECTION 1. (a) This Act shall be known as the Texas Balance
10	10	of Powers Act.
11	11	(b) The legislature finds that:
12	12	(1) The people of the several states comprising the
13	13	United States of America created the federal government to be their
14	14	agent for certain enumerated purposes and nothing more.
15	15	(2) The Tenth Amendment to the United States
16	16	Constitution defines the total scope of federal power as including
17	17	only those powers specifically delegated by the Constitution to the
18	18	federal government. Those powers not explicitly delegated by the
19	19	Constitution to the federal government are reserved to the states
20	20	or to the people themselves.
21	21	(3) Each power delegated to the federal government by
22	22	the United States Constitution encompasses only that power as it
23	23	was understood at the time it was delegated, subject only to an
24	24	expansion or limitation of that power by a subsequent amendment to
25	25	the Constitution.
26	26	(4) The United States Constitution authorizes the
27	27	United States Congress to exercise only those powers enumerated in
28	28	Section 8, Article I, of the Constitution, as well as certain other
29	29	powers delegated to Congress by subsequent amendments to the
30	30	Constitution. Article VI of the Constitution makes supreme the
31	31	Constitution and federal laws enacted pursuant to the Constitution,
32	32	further requiring that public officials at all levels and in all
33	33	branches of government support the Constitution.
34	34	(5) Paragraph 3, Section 8, Article I, of the United
35	35	States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress only
36	36	the specific power to regulate commerce with "foreign nations, and
37	37	among the several states, and with Indian tribes." This provision
38	38	was never intended to authorize the federal government to assume
39	39	any power beyond the regulation of transactions in those three
40	40	specific categories. Through vastly distorted interpretations of
41	41	the meaning of the Commerce Clause not authorized by the
42	42	Constitution or an amendment to the Constitution, the legislative,
43	43	executive, and judicial branches of the federal government have
44	44	adopted and implemented countless measures not authorized by the
45	45	language or original intent of the clause, many of which usurp the
46	46	duties and responsibilities reserved to the states by the Tenth
47	47	Amendment.
48	48	(6) Paragraph 1, Section 8, Article I, of the United
49	49	States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress the
50	50	power to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
51	51	general welfare of the United States. The General Welfare Clause
52	52	was intended and understood to ensure that Congress, when
53	53	exercising an enumerated power, does so in a manner that serves all
54	54	states generally, and no state or person singularly.
55	55	(7) The final paragraph of Section 8, Article I, of the
56	56	United States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress
57	57	the limited power to make laws "necessary and proper" to carry into
58	58	execution the powers delegated by the Constitution to the United
59	59	States government. Using this clause to expand federal power beyond
60	60	specifically enumerated powers granted by the Constitution
61	61	violates the plain language and original intent of that clause.
62	62	(8) The constitutional limitation on the scope of
63	63	federal power and the reservation of other powers to the states or
64	64	to the people are matters of contract between this state and its
65	65	people, and the United States, as of the date this state was
66	66	admitted to the United States of America.
67	67	(9) The federal government has acted in a manner
68	68	inconsistent with the language, intent, and spirit of the United
69	69	States Constitution in direct violation of the Constitution and the
70	70	contract between this state and its people, and the United States.
71	71	This state rejects the unauthorized and excessive abuse of power by
72	72	the federal government that infringes on the rights of this state
73	73	and its people and that unconstitutionally undermines, diminishes,
74	74	and disregards the balance of powers between the states and the
75	75	federal government established by the Constitution.
76	76	(c) In accordance with the United States Constitution, the
77	77	federal government is denied by this state the power to take any
78	78	legislative, executive, or judicial action that violates the
79	79	Constitution, specifically including those actions that
80	80	unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or disregard the balance
81	81	of powers between the states and the federal government established
82	82	by the Constitution.
83	83	(d) This Act serves as notice from this state to the federal
84	84	government to cease and desist any and all unconstitutional
85	85	activities that are outside the scope of the power delegated to it
86	86	by the United States Constitution, including those activities that
87	87	unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or disregard the balance
88	88	of powers between the states and the federal government established
89	89	by the Constitution.
90	90	(e) This Act calls on all state and local officials,
91	91	especially members of law enforcement, prosecutors, members of
92	92	local governing bodies, the attorney general, and the governor to
93	93	honor their oath to preserve, protect, and defend the United States
94	94	Constitution, based on the original intent of that document unless
95	95	modified by subsequent constitutional amendment, and as such to
96	96	stop unconstitutional federal actions.
97	97	(f) This state and its people retain their sovereign power
98	98	to regulate the affairs of this state, subject only to the
99	99	limitations prescribed by the United States Constitution.
100	100	SECTION 2. Subtitle Z, Title 3, Government Code, is amended
101	101	by adding Chapter 393 to read as follows:
102	102	CHAPTER 393. ENFORCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION
103	103	Sec. 393.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
104	104	(1) "Committee" means the Joint Legislative Committee
105	105	on Constitutional Powers and Enforcement.
106	106	(2) "Federal action" includes:
107	107	(A) a federal law;
108	108	(B) a federal agency rule, policy, or standard;
109	109	(C) an executive order of the president of the
110	110	United States;
111	111	(D) an order of a federal court; and
112	112	(E) the making or enforcing of a treaty.
113	113	(3) "Unconstitutional federal action" means a federal
114	114	action enacted, adopted, or implemented without authority
115	115	specifically delegated to the federal government by the people and
116	116	the states through the United States Constitution.
117	117	Sec. 393.002. JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON
118	118	CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS AND ENFORCEMENT. (a) The Joint Legislative
119	119	Committee on Constitutional Powers and Enforcement is established
120	120	as a permanent joint committee of the legislature.
121	121	(b) The committee consists of the following 14 members:
122	122	(1) seven members of the house of representatives
123	123	appointed by the speaker of the house; and
124	124	(2) seven members of the senate appointed by the
125	125	lieutenant governor.
126	126	(c) Not more than four house members of the committee may be
127	127	members of the same political party. Not more than four senate
128	128	members of the committee may be members of the same political party.
129	129	(d) Members of the committee serve two-year terms beginning
130	130	with the convening of each regular legislative session.
131	131	(e) If a vacancy occurs on the committee, the appropriate
132	132	appointing officer shall appoint a member of the house or senate, as
133	133	appropriate, to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.
134	134	(f) The speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor
135	135	shall each designate one member of the committee as a joint chair of
136	136	the committee.
137	137	(g) The committee shall meet at the call of either joint
138	138	chair.
139	139	(h) A majority of the members of the committee constitute a
140	140	quorum.
141	141	Sec. 393.003. COMMITTEE REVIEW OF FEDERAL ACTION. (a) The
142	142	committee may review any federal action to determine whether the
143	143	action is an unconstitutional federal action.
144	144	(b) Not later than the 180th day after the date the
145	145	committee holds its first public hearing to review a specific
146	146	federal action, the committee shall vote to determine whether the
147	147	action is an unconstitutional federal action.
148	148	(c) The committee may determine that a federal action is an
149	149	unconstitutional federal action by majority vote.
150	150	(d) The committee shall report to the governor and the
151	151	attorney general each federal action that the committee determines
152	152	to be an unconstitutional federal action. The committee may include
153	153	in the report one or more effective and constitutional ways to
154	154	prevent the application of the federal action in this state.
155	155	(e) Not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year,
156	156	the committee shall submit a report to the speaker of the house of
157	157	representatives and the lieutenant governor that lists each federal
158	158	action determined by the committee to be an unconstitutional
159	159	federal action since the committee's previous report. The committee
160	160	shall include in the report one or more recommendations for
161	161	effective and constitutional legislative responses to the federal
162	162	action.
163	163	Sec. 393.004. ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION. The attorney
164	164	general may represent this state or a political subdivision of this
165	165	state in an action regarding the refusal or failure of the state or
166	166	the political subdivision to participate in the implementation or
167	167	enforcement of an unconstitutional federal action.
168	168	SECTION 3. (a) Not later than the 30th day following the
169	169	effective date of this Act:
170	170	(1) the speaker of the house of representatives and
171	171	the lieutenant governor shall appoint the initial members of the
172	172	Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Powers and
173	173	Enforcement established under Section 393.002, Government Code, as
174	174	added by this Act; and
175	175	(2) the secretary of state shall forward official
176	176	copies of this Act to the president of the United States, to the
177	177	speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the
178	178	Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of
179	179	the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this Act be
180	180	officially entered in the Congressional Record.
181	181	(b) Not later than the 45th day following the effective date
182	182	of this Act, the speaker of the house of representatives and the
183	183	lieutenant governor shall forward official copies of this Act to
184	184	the presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states.
185	185	SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
186	186	a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
187	187	provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
188	188	Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
189	189	Act takes effect September 1, 2017.