Texas 2025 - 89th Regular

Texas Senate Bill SCR28 Compare Versions

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

Old	New	Differences
1	1	89R14306 BPG-D
2	2	By: Paxton S.C.R. No. 28
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7	7	CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
8	8	WHEREAS, Our nation was founded on the principle of popular
9	9	sovereignty, with a government of, by, and for the American people,
10	10	and each generation has a responsibility to ensure that the promise
11	11	of self-government is open to all Americans; and
12	12	WHEREAS, The framers of the U.S. Constitution recognized the
13	13	peril of allowing outside influences to infiltrate our politics;
14	14	Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution forbids
15	15	officeholders from accepting any manner of title or financial
16	16	compensation from a foreign power; in The Federalist No. 68,
17	17	Alexander Hamilton warned of "the desire in foreign powers to gain
18	18	an improper ascendant in our councils," while, in his farewell
19	19	address, George Washington cautioned that "history and experience
20	20	prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
21	21	republican government"; and
22	22	WHEREAS, Through the years, Congress has passed a variety of
23	23	legislation to combat foreign interference, such as the Federal
24	24	Election Campaign Act, which includes a ban on spending by foreign
25	25	nationals in federal, state, and local elections; today, however,
26	26	our broken system of election spending makes it easy for foreign
27	27	entities to spend millions of dollars to influence our elections
28	28	and ballot initiatives, through such means as illegal donations
29	29	directly to candidates, hidden contributions to dark money groups,
30	30	influence campaigns, and brazen spending in ballot elections by
31	31	government-owned entities; and
32	32	WHEREAS, Decades of judicial overreach have also enabled
33	33	domestic actors to drown out the voices of individual voters;
34	34	Supreme Court decisions degrading transparency and equating
35	35	unlimited election spending with "free speech" have allowed
36	36	billionaires, corporations, unions, and other wealthy special
37	37	interests to dominate and distort the public discourse, narrowing
38	38	debate, weakening federalism and state self-governance, and
39	39	increasing the risk of systemic corruption; and
40	40	WHEREAS, Like the U.S. Constitution, the Constitution of
41	41	Texas affirms that political power rests with the people in our
42	42	republican form of government; our continued liberty depends
43	43	heavily on protecting free speech interests of individual citizens
44	44	and maintaining the integrity of our elections and our government
45	45	in the face of outside pressures; and
46	46	WHEREAS, The framers wisely granted the states the power to
47	47	amend the U.S. Constitution when necessary, and few issues are more
48	48	important than the preservation of the people's sovereign interests
49	49	in robust political debate, the integrity of the electoral process,
50	50	open and representative self-government, and the political
51	51	equality of natural persons; now, therefore, be it
52	52	RESOLVED, That the 89th Legislature of the State of Texas
53	53	hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to propose and
54	54	send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to
55	55	clarify that the states and Congress, within their respective
56	56	jurisdictions, may reasonably regulate and limit the spending of
57	57	money to influence campaigns, elections, or ballot measures, and
58	58	that, in so doing, the states and Congress may distinguish between
59	59	natural persons and artificial entities such as corporations,
60	60	unions, and artificial intelligences; and, be it further
61	61	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
62	62	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
63	63	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
64	64	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
65	65	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
66	66	this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
67	67	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.