Bill Text: TX HCR66 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging the United States Congress to impeach President Donald J. Trump.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-12 - Referred to State Affairs [HCR66 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HCR66-Introduced.html
86R10670 BPG-D | ||
By: Reynolds | H.C.R. No. 66 |
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WHEREAS, President Donald J. Trump has departed frequently | ||
from the norms and ethical standards long established for his | ||
office, but while the number of scandals clouding his | ||
administration is unprecedented, their nature was anticipated by | ||
the framers of the United States Constitution; and | ||
WHEREAS, Newly liberated from the tyranny of King George III, | ||
the founding fathers were determined to strengthen their new | ||
republic against any chief executive who should prove unfit or | ||
evince despotic tendencies; during the Constitutional Convention, | ||
James Madison warned against "incapacity, negligence, or perfidy," | ||
and said that simply enduring a reprobate until the next election | ||
would be unwise, for "He might pervert his administration into a | ||
scheme of peculation"--the theft of public funds--"or oppression. | ||
He might betray his trust to foreign powers"; his fellow Virginian, | ||
George Mason, feared "attempts to subvert the Constitution" and | ||
cautioned against a chief executive who "might engage in the | ||
corrupting of electors" or use the power of the pardon "to stop | ||
inquiry and prevent detection"; and | ||
WHEREAS, Still another Virginian, Edmund Randolph, | ||
championed a clause forbidding the president from "receiving | ||
emoluments from foreign powers"; Abraham Baldwin of Georgia worried | ||
that the head of the executive branch might fail in his | ||
constitutional duty to properly staff that branch of government, or | ||
that "in a fit of passion," he might discharge "all the good | ||
officers of government"; and | ||
WHEREAS, Resolved to discourage malfeasance or monarchical | ||
behavior by the executive while maintaining a rigorous system of | ||
checks and balances, after much discussion and parsing of language, | ||
the framers established impeachment as a mechanism for Congress to | ||
investigate "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and | ||
Misdemeanors," the last echoing a similar phrase used in the | ||
English Parliament since 1450 to describe both criminal and | ||
noncriminal offenses against the state; and | ||
WHEREAS, In the excesses of the Trump administration, the | ||
framers would recognize grotesque illustrations of their greatest | ||
fears; although our intelligence agencies have confirmed that | ||
Russia interfered extensively in the 2016 election to support | ||
President Trump, he has tried to deny the attack on our democracy | ||
and failed to muster a credible response; he hid his efforts to | ||
conduct business in Moscow during his campaign, and he has gone to | ||
extraordinary lengths to conceal from even his closest advisors the | ||
nature of his many private conversations with his Russian | ||
counterpart, Vladimir Putin; moreover, he has taken actions and | ||
adopted positions favorable to the Kremlin while undermining our | ||
NATO allies and Western values; his efforts to stymie the | ||
investigation into Russian intervention so alarmed the FBI that it | ||
opened a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether he | ||
was trying to assist our adversary, and the special counsel is | ||
considering whether the president has obstructed justice; despite | ||
warnings from his own lawyers, he has dangled a pardon for his | ||
former campaign manager, although just such an offense set Richard | ||
Nixon on the path to impeachment; and | ||
WHEREAS, President Trump's personal lawyer has pleaded | ||
guilty to the felonious violation of campaign finance laws on his | ||
behalf and at his direction; the president's failure to divest his | ||
business interests, including investments abroad, almost certainly | ||
violates the Emoluments Clause, and as he has used his office to | ||
publicize his properties, not only foreign nations, but also | ||
domestic actors, have curried favor through lavish spending, a | ||
matter now before the courts; while he refused to release his tax | ||
returns, unlike all his predecessors in the modern era, exhaustive | ||
reporting by the New York Times found an elaborate pattern of | ||
deception over the course of decades and concluded that he had | ||
evaded more than $400 million in taxes and engaged in "instances of | ||
outright fraud"; more troubling still, the president has ignored | ||
his constitutional duty to appropriately staff the government with | ||
"good officers," forcing out experienced professionals and leaving | ||
a quarter of his cabinet posts to mere placeholders, including the | ||
acting secretary of defense, who has little experience of either | ||
diplomacy or military administration; and | ||
WHEREAS, Other outrageous acts by this president constitute | ||
attempts to erode the separation of powers, trample on civil | ||
liberties, and ignore the rule of law, all while setting Americans | ||
against each other with lies and ugly rhetoric; the dizzying number | ||
of transgressions against his duty under the constitution has | ||
tended to obscure the central fact that citizens cannot trust that | ||
the president is acting in their interest, rather than his own; with | ||
great moral clarity, however, the late John Dingell, our | ||
longest-serving member of congress, in his final message to the | ||
nation reminded us: "In democratic government, elected officials do | ||
not have power. They hold power in trust for the people who elected | ||
them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite | ||
properly revoked"; now, therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to impeach | ||
President Donald J. Trump; and, be it further | ||
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |