[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 425 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 425

  Expressing disapproval of the failure to satisfy the constitutional 
  duty to ``take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed'' and the 
usurpation of the legislative authority of Congress by the President of 
                           the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 20, 2013

    Mr. DeSantis (for himself, Mr. Salmon, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mrs. 
  Blackburn, Mr. Mulvaney, Mr. Garrett, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Fleming, Mr. 
King of Iowa, Mr. Stutzman, Mr. Bridenstine, Mr. Yoho, Mr. McClintock, 
 and Mr. Wilson of South Carolina) submitted the following resolution; 
          which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing disapproval of the failure to satisfy the constitutional 
  duty to ``take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed'' and the 
usurpation of the legislative authority of Congress by the President of 
                           the United States.

Whereas Article I of the United States Constitution vests Congress with all 
        legislative powers;
Whereas Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution imposes a duty 
        on the President to ``take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed'';
Whereas the Constitution does not delegate authority to the President to 
        rewrite, amend, or delay duly-enacted, constitutional laws;
Whereas the ``take care'' duty has roots in Anglo-American law dating back to 
        the Glorious Revolution of 17th century Britain, to wit, the English 
        Bill of Rights of 1689 provided that ``the pretended power of suspending 
        laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without the consent 
        of parliament, is illegal'';
Whereas President George Washington explained the Constitution's Take Care 
        Clause as follows: ``It is my duty to see the Laws executed: to permit 
        them to be trampled with impunity would be repugnant to'' that duty;
Whereas Thomas Jefferson observed that ``if the equilibrium of the three great 
        bodies, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, could be preserved, if the 
        Legislature could be kept independent,'' he would ``never fear the 
        result of such a government'', but that ``he could not but be uneasy 
        when I saw that the Executive had swallowed up the Legislative branch'';
Whereas Alexander Hamilton explained in The Federalist No. 69 that, under the 
        Constitution, the President ``can prescribe no rules concerning the 
        commerce or currency of the nation'';
Whereas James Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 47 that the ``accumulation of 
        all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands, 
        whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, 
        or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny'';
Whereas the text of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires that 
        the Shared Responsibility for Employers Regarding Health Coverage 
        provision, commonly known as the employer mandate, ``shall apply to 
        months beginning after December 31, 2013'';
Whereas, on July 2, 2013, the executive branch announced that the President 
        unilaterally rewrote the employer mandate provision to apply to the 
        months applying after December 31, 2014;
Whereas, on July 17, 2013, the House of Representatives passed a bill to delay 
        the employer mandate by statute;
Whereas the President threatened to veto the lawful change proposed by the House 
        even though it was precisely the statutory change he instituted by 
        executive fiat;
Whereas the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act renders insurance 
        policies that fail to contain what the government defines as ``essential 
        minimum benefits'' to be illegal;
Whereas millions of Americans are losing their individual health insurance 
        policies because such policies do not qualify for grandfather status 
        under the statute;
Whereas, on November 14, 2013, the President announced that he would ``extend'' 
        the statute's grandfather clause to include plans not protected under 
        the statute;
Whereas, on November 15, 2013, the House of Representatives passed a bill to 
        overrule the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care 
        Act that are causing mass cancellations of insurance policies; and
Whereas, on November 15, 2013, the President threatened to veto the lawful 
        statutory change proposed by the House of Representatives: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) disapproves of the President's failure to ``take Care 
        that the Laws be faithfully executed'' as required by the 
        Constitution;
            (2) disapproves of the President's usurpation of the 
        legislative power of Congress through the rewriting of key 
        provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; 
        and
            (3) reaffirms that the preservation of the Constitution's 
        separation of powers is essential for the protection of 
        individual liberty and the maintenance of the rule of law.
                                 <all>