[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 286 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 286

    Directing certain officials of the executive branch to provide 
information to the House of Representatives that will enable the House 
 to meet its constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of the 
 executive branch by investigating potential conflicts of interests of 
                       President Donald J. Trump.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 27, 2017

 Ms. Clark of Massachusetts submitted the following resolution; which 
 was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and 
  in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, Transportation and 
 Infrastructure, and Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined 
 by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as 
        fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Directing certain officials of the executive branch to provide 
information to the House of Representatives that will enable the House 
 to meet its constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of the 
 executive branch by investigating potential conflicts of interests of 
                       President Donald J. Trump.

Whereas, on October 18, 2016, then-candidate Donald J. Trump communicated via 
        Twitter: ``I will Make Our Government Honest Again--believe me. But 
        first, I'm going to have to #DrainTheSwamp in DC'';
Whereas President Trump subsequently nominated a team of wealthy and connected 
        insiders to lead his Cabinet, many of whom have been forced to withdraw 
        from consideration because of irrevocable conflicts of interest;
Whereas, as President-Elect, President Trump announced that he would be 
        ``leaving [his] great business'' to his adult children, a move he felt 
        would be ``visually important'';
Whereas President Trump has taken no steps to untangle his financial interest in 
        his business holdings, to limit his ability to advise the nominal 
        managers of the Trump Organization, or to prevent other interests from 
        currying favor with the White House by doing business with companies 
        that might benefit the President's bottom line;
Whereas President Trump has reversed White House policy and now refuses to 
        release visitor logs to the public;
Whereas, on May 30, 2014, President Trump stated: ``If I decide to run for 
        office, I'll produce my tax returns, absolutely'';
Whereas, on January 24, 2016, President Trump stated that he would release his 
        ``very big returns . . . in the next period of time'';
Whereas, on February 25, 2016, President Trump changed his position and stated 
        that, although he could not release his tax returns while under audit, 
        he would do so ``as soon as the audit is done'';
Whereas, on May 11, 2016, President Trump communicated via Twitter: ``In 
        interview I told @AP that my taxes are under routine audit and I would 
        release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after election!'';
Whereas, on January 22, 2017, White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway stated 
        that ``the White House response is that he's not going to release his 
        returns'';
Whereas President Trump has directed the Congress to act on comprehensive reform 
        of the Internal Revenue Code;
Whereas without the President's tax returns, the public cannot know how the full 
        extent to which any proposed reforms will personally benefit the 
        President;
Whereas, on January 11, 2017, President Trump insisted that he has ``no dealings 
        with Russia'';
Whereas it has been widely reported that President Trump sought and received 
        funding from Russian investors, especially when American banks stopped 
        lending to him after his multiple bankruptcies;
Whereas Donald Trump, Jr., who runs day-to-day business operations for his 
        father's companies, has stated: ``Russians make up a pretty 
        disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of 
        money pouring in from Russia'';
Whereas, on March 20, 2017, James B. Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation, confirmed the existence of a Federal investigation into 
        multiple connections between the Trump campaign and the regime of 
        Russian President Vladimir Putin;
Whereas it has been reported that President Trump has personally guaranteed over 
        $300,000,000 in loans to German financial institution Deutsche Bank AG;
Whereas the Trump Administration is now responsible for overseeing multiple 
        investigations into the trading and lending practices of Deutsche Bank 
        AG, and for negotiating a potentially multibillion-dollar settlement 
        with the bank related to its trading of mortgage-backed securities;
Whereas these matters represent only a few of the many instances in which 
        President Trump has broken his promise to ``drain the swamp'';
Whereas under the Constitution of the United States, Congress has a 
        responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive branch;
Whereas the majority of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 
        House of Representatives rejected an amendment to the committee's 
        oversight plan that would have tasked the committee with investigating 
        the President's conflicts of interest;
Whereas Members of the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Foreign Affairs, the 
        Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Ways and Means of the House of 
        Representatives have each advanced resolutions of inquiry designed to 
        obtain information about the President's ongoing conflicts of interest;
Whereas the majority has blocked each of those resolutions from consideration on 
        the House floor;
Whereas the continuing refusal of the majority to conduct even basic oversight 
        of the Trump Administration diminishes the status of the Congress as a 
        co-equal branch of Government; and
Whereas this continued neglect undermines the credibility of the House of 
        Representatives and raises a question of the privileges of the House: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives directs the following 
persons to take the following actions:
            (1) President Trump is directed to transmit to the House of 
        Representatives copies of any document, record, memorandum, 
        correspondence, or other communication in possession of the 
        Executive Office of the President, or any portion of such 
        communication, that refers or relates to President Trump's 
        proposal to maintain an interest in his business holdings, 
        while turning over day-to-day operation of those interests to 
        his sons Donald J. Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump.
            (2) In support of transparency in government and the 
        longstanding tradition of the disclosure of tax returns of 
        Presidents and Presidential candidates, the Secretary of the 
        Treasury is directed to provide the Committee on Ways and Means 
        with the tax return information of Donald J. Trump for tax 
        years 2007 through 2016 for review in closed executive session 
        by the committee as provided under section 6103 of the Internal 
        Revenue Code of 1986, and directs the committee to hold a vote 
        on reporting such information to the full House of 
        Representatives.
            (3) The Director of the Office on Government Ethics is 
        directed to publish any waiver or exception granted to any 
        officer or employee of the Government to the January 28, 2017, 
        Executive order entitled ``Ethics Commitments by Executive 
        Branch Appointees''.
            (4) The Administrator of General Services is directed to 
        provide the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 
        House of Representatives with any legal analysis supporting its 
        March 23, 2017, conclusion that Trump International Hotel in 
        Washington may maintain its lease with the Federal Government, 
        despite an express prohibition on elected officials taking part 
        in the lease.
            (5) President Trump is directed to provide visitor logs for 
        both the White House and Mar-A-Lago to the Committee on 
        Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives 
        on a rolling and ongoing basis, and directs the committee to 
        hold ongoing votes on reporting the contents of such visitor 
        logs to the full House of Representatives.
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