[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 494 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 494
Condemning the false, inflammatory, and racially offensive statements
made by the President of the United States regarding four women of
color who are duly elected Members of the One Hundred Sixteenth
Congress.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 16, 2019
Ms. Jackson Lee (for herself and Mr. Cohen) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning the false, inflammatory, and racially offensive statements
made by the President of the United States regarding four women of
color who are duly elected Members of the One Hundred Sixteenth
Congress.
Whereas, on November 6, 2018, in an election widely regarded as a referendum on
the performance and disapproval of the administration of President
Donald J. Trump, the American people voted to vest control of the House
of Representatives in the Democratic Party to restore the system of
checks and balances designed by the Framers in 1787 in Philadelphia;
Whereas the Representatives elected to the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress
comprise the most diverse class in American history with respect to its
racial, ethnic, and religious composition, and also includes the largest
contingent of female Representatives and the most Members ever of the
LGBTQ community;
Whereas among the cohort of the 40 Representatives first elected to the Congress
in the November 2018 election are several whose membership is historic,
including the Representative for the 7th District of Massachusetts, the
first African-American woman elected from the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts; the Representative from the 13th District of Michigan,
the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress; the
Representative from the 14th District of New York, the youngest woman
ever elected to Congress; and the Representative from the 5th District
of Minnesota, the first Somali-American elected to Congress;
Whereas in the discharge of their official duties as Members of Congress, the
aforementioned Representatives traveled to the southern border of the
United States to observe the living conditions and treatment received by
migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the United States who are
currently being held in detention facilities, some consisting of nothing
more than tent villages cordoned off under highways;
Whereas the migrants and refugees being detained sought refuge in the United
States for the same reasons as the tens of millions who came before
them, in this century and the last, from this continent and from every
other and from all corners of the globe;
Whereas the migrants and refugees being detained sought refuge in the United
States to be free of fear and hunger, to better their condition, to
begin their world anew, and to give their children a chance for a better
life, seeking to leave the pain of the Old World for the hope and
promise of the New World;
Whereas upon their return to the capital, the aforementioned Representatives
reported their shock and horror regarding the inhumane conditions to
which detainees were being subjected by the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection at a public hearing of a standing committee of the House of
Representatives;
Whereas, on July 14, 2019, the President of the United States reacted to the
criticism of his administration's treatment of detainees by the
aforementioned Representatives in a series of tweets that questioned
their loyalty to the United States and implied that the circumstances of
their birth gave them no right to exercise the responsibilities and
privileges of duly elected Members of Congress;
Whereas the President tweeted about the aforementioned Representatives: ``So
interesting to see `Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen, who originally
came from countries whose governments are a complete and total
catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if
they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly . . . and
viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most
powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don't
they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places
from which they came'';
Whereas the President's statements are false, inflammatory, and racially
offensive and unbecoming the Nation's chief executive;
Whereas the recent statements of the President are inaccurate and offensive but
consistent with prior statements he has made to stoke division, discord,
and disharmony among the American people;
Whereas the current President of the United States burnished his political
reputation by claiming falsely for more than five years that his
predecessor was born in Kenya and not the United States and thus was an
illegitimate President;
Whereas the current President of the United States launched his 2016 campaign
for the Presidency said of persons from Mexico seeking to immigrate to
the United States: ``They`re bringing drugs. They're bringing crime.
They're rapists.'';
Whereas the current President of the United States claimed that a Hispanic
Federal jurist could not preside over a court proceeding to which he was
a defendant accused of civil fraud because ``He's a Mexican'';
Whereas in January 2018, the current President of the United States is reported
to have inquired of his advisors: ``Why are we having all these people
from shithole countries come here?'', referring to persons from
countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America;
Whereas, on August 15, 2017, the current President of the United States said he
regarded as some ``very fine people'' the neo-Nazis, white supremacists,
and Ku Klux Klansmen who descended on the peaceful community of
Charlottesville, Virginia, to advocate racism and who were met by
peaceful counterprotesters;
Whereas in his continuous and determined effort to exacerbate ethnic tensions
and racial divisions in the body politic, the current President of the
United States is revealing himself to be an unwitting instrument of the
plan hatched in Moscow by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to
interfere in the 2016 Presidential campaign to help elect his preferred
candidate and sow discord and division among the American people; and
Whereas statements and actions of the current President of the United States
demean the Office he holds and falls short of the standard set by the
16th President, whose administration was devoted to unity, healing, and
ending racial division and who famously foretold in his March 4, 1861,
Inaugural Address the reasons why the efforts of the current President
of the United States are destined to fail: ``We are not enemies, but
friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it
must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will
swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels
of our nature.'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) strongly condemns the false, inflammatory, and racially
offensive statements made by the President of the United States
regarding four women of color who are duly elected Members of
the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress;
(2) calls upon all Americans to celebrate the ethnic,
racial, and religious diversity that has made the United States
the leader of the community of nations and the beacon of hope
and inspiration to oppressed persons everywhere; and
(3) encourages all persons in the United States to cherish
and exercise the rights, privileges, and responsibilities
guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.
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