[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 494 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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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