Texas 2019 - 86th Regular

Texas House Bill HCR66 Compare Versions

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

Old	New	Differences
1	1	86R10670 BPG-D
2	2	By: Reynolds H.C.R. No. 66
3	3
4	4
5	5	CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
6	6	WHEREAS, President Donald J. Trump has departed frequently
7	7	from the norms and ethical standards long established for his
8	8	office, but while the number of scandals clouding his
9	9	administration is unprecedented, their nature was anticipated by
10	10	the framers of the United States Constitution; and
11	11	WHEREAS, Newly liberated from the tyranny of King George III,
12	12	the founding fathers were determined to strengthen their new
13	13	republic against any chief executive who should prove unfit or
14	14	evince despotic tendencies; during the Constitutional Convention,
15	15	James Madison warned against "incapacity, negligence, or perfidy,"
16	16	and said that simply enduring a reprobate until the next election
17	17	would be unwise, for "He might pervert his administration into a
18	18	scheme of peculation"--the theft of public funds--"or oppression.
19	19	He might betray his trust to foreign powers"; his fellow Virginian,
20	20	George Mason, feared "attempts to subvert the Constitution" and
21	21	cautioned against a chief executive who "might engage in the
22	22	corrupting of electors" or use the power of the pardon "to stop
23	23	inquiry and prevent detection"; and
24	24	WHEREAS, Still another Virginian, Edmund Randolph,
25	25	championed a clause forbidding the president from "receiving
26	26	emoluments from foreign powers"; Abraham Baldwin of Georgia worried
27	27	that the head of the executive branch might fail in his
28	28	constitutional duty to properly staff that branch of government, or
29	29	that "in a fit of passion," he might discharge "all the good
30	30	officers of government"; and
31	31	WHEREAS, Resolved to discourage malfeasance or monarchical
32	32	behavior by the executive while maintaining a rigorous system of
33	33	checks and balances, after much discussion and parsing of language,
34	34	the framers established impeachment as a mechanism for Congress to
35	35	investigate "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and
36	36	Misdemeanors," the last echoing a similar phrase used in the
37	37	English Parliament since 1450 to describe both criminal and
38	38	noncriminal offenses against the state; and
39	39	WHEREAS, In the excesses of the Trump administration, the
40	40	framers would recognize grotesque illustrations of their greatest
41	41	fears; although our intelligence agencies have confirmed that
42	42	Russia interfered extensively in the 2016 election to support
43	43	President Trump, he has tried to deny the attack on our democracy
44	44	and failed to muster a credible response; he hid his efforts to
45	45	conduct business in Moscow during his campaign, and he has gone to
46	46	extraordinary lengths to conceal from even his closest advisors the
47	47	nature of his many private conversations with his Russian
48	48	counterpart, Vladimir Putin; moreover, he has taken actions and
49	49	adopted positions favorable to the Kremlin while undermining our
50	50	NATO allies and Western values; his efforts to stymie the
51	51	investigation into Russian intervention so alarmed the FBI that it
52	52	opened a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether he
53	53	was trying to assist our adversary, and the special counsel is
54	54	considering whether the president has obstructed justice; despite
55	55	warnings from his own lawyers, he has dangled a pardon for his
56	56	former campaign manager, although just such an offense set Richard
57	57	Nixon on the path to impeachment; and
58	58	WHEREAS, President Trump's personal lawyer has pleaded
59	59	guilty to the felonious violation of campaign finance laws on his
60	60	behalf and at his direction; the president's failure to divest his
61	61	business interests, including investments abroad, almost certainly
62	62	violates the Emoluments Clause, and as he has used his office to
63	63	publicize his properties, not only foreign nations, but also
64	64	domestic actors, have curried favor through lavish spending, a
65	65	matter now before the courts; while he refused to release his tax
66	66	returns, unlike all his predecessors in the modern era, exhaustive
67	67	reporting by the New York Times found an elaborate pattern of
68	68	deception over the course of decades and concluded that he had
69	69	evaded more than $400 million in taxes and engaged in "instances of
70	70	outright fraud"; more troubling still, the president has ignored
71	71	his constitutional duty to appropriately staff the government with
72	72	"good officers," forcing out experienced professionals and leaving
73	73	a quarter of his cabinet posts to mere placeholders, including the
74	74	acting secretary of defense, who has little experience of either
75	75	diplomacy or military administration; and
76	76	WHEREAS, Other outrageous acts by this president constitute
77	77	attempts to erode the separation of powers, trample on civil
78	78	liberties, and ignore the rule of law, all while setting Americans
79	79	against each other with lies and ugly rhetoric; the dizzying number
80	80	of transgressions against his duty under the constitution has
81	81	tended to obscure the central fact that citizens cannot trust that
82	82	the president is acting in their interest, rather than his own; with
83	83	great moral clarity, however, the late John Dingell, our
84	84	longest-serving member of congress, in his final message to the
85	85	nation reminded us: "In democratic government, elected officials do
86	86	not have power. They hold power in trust for the people who elected
87	87	them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite
88	88	properly revoked"; now, therefore, be it
89	89	RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas
90	90	hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to impeach
91	91	President Donald J. Trump; and, be it further
92	92	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
93	93	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
94	94	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
95	95	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
96	96	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
97	97	this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
98	98	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.