Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas House Bill HCR128 Compare Versions

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

Old	New	Differences
1	1	85R21533 BPG-D
2	2	By: Turner H.C.R. No. 128
3	3
4	4
5	5	CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
6	6	WHEREAS, On June 14, 2016, the Washington Post reported that
7	7	the Russian government had penetrated the computer network of the
8	8	Democratic National Committee and that Russian government hackers
9	9	had targeted the networks of both presidential candidates, as well
10	10	as the computers of some Republican political action committees;
11	11	and
12	12	WHEREAS, Indications of Russian interference in the
13	13	electoral process continued to mount in the ensuing months; the
14	14	Post reported that the FBI had alerted Arizona election officials
15	15	in June that Russians were behind an assault on their state's voter
16	16	registration system; as a result, election officials shut down the
17	17	system for nearly a week; according to the FBI, a similar attack on
18	18	the state voter registration database in Illinois appeared to offer
19	19	further evidence of Russian interest in U.S. elections; on October
20	20	7, 2016, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of
21	21	the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement
22	22	expressing confidence that "the Russian Government directed the
23	23	recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions,
24	24	including from U.S. political organizations"; and
25	25	WHEREAS, In response to these incursions, President Barack
26	26	Obama released a December 29, 2016, executive order "taking
27	27	additional steps to address the national emergency with respect to
28	28	significant malicious cyber-enabled activities"; the order blocked
29	29	all property and interests in property in the United States
30	30	belonging to five entities based in Russia and four individuals of
31	31	Russian nationality; in addition, the White House ordered 35
32	32	Russian operatives to leave the U.S., and it closed two
33	33	Russian-owned facilities believed to have been used for
34	34	intelligence purposes; and
35	35	WHEREAS, Just eight days later, the Office of the Director of
36	36	National Intelligence released an Intelligence Community
37	37	Assessment of Russian activities and intentions in recent U.S.
38	38	elections, which determined that Russian president Vladimir Putin
39	39	ordered his country's campaign to influence the 2016 U.S.
40	40	presidential election, that the campaign was multifaceted, that the
41	41	influence effort was the boldest yet in the United States, and that
42	42	the election operation signaled a "new normal" in Russian influence
43	43	endeavors; the U.S. intelligence community also assessed with high
44	44	confidence that Russian military intelligence relayed U.S. victim
45	45	data to WikiLeaks and that Russian intelligence obtained and
46	46	maintained access to elements of multiple U.S. state or local
47	47	electoral boards; and
48	48	WHEREAS, FBI Director James Comey testified before the House
49	49	Intelligence Committee on March 20, 2017, to confirm his agency's
50	50	wide-ranging investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016
51	51	presidential election, which was ordered by President Vladimir
52	52	Putin to undermine Hillary Clinton's bid for office and improve the
53	53	odds for Donald Trump; Mr. Comey noted that the Russians were
54	54	successful in injecting "chaos and discord" into the electoral
55	55	process and consequently could be expected to resume such
56	56	activities in future elections, and revealed that the FBI is
57	57	looking into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the
58	58	Trump campaign; in another recent revelation, the Associated Press
59	59	reported on March 22 that former Trump campaign manager Paul
60	60	Manafort had secretly worked for a Russian oligarch to influence
61	61	politics, business dealings, and news coverage for the benefit of
62	62	Vladimir Putin; and
63	63	WHEREAS, In light of these reports of Russian interference in
64	64	U.S. elections, it is the fundamental responsibility of Congress to
65	65	decide where, how, and by whom financial resources in its control
66	66	should be invested with regard to Russia; our government should not
67	67	provide funds that can be used to facilitate the Russian
68	68	government's campaign to influence our election processes; now,
69	69	therefore, be it
70	70	RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas
71	71	hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to bar
72	72	investments in Russia until investigations into Russian
73	73	interference with U.S. elections have been completed; and, be it
74	74	further
75	75	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
76	76	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
77	77	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
78	78	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
79	79	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
80	80	this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
81	81	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.