[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 378 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 378
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the House of Representatives
should, consistent with long-standing practice and precedent, prior to
proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into
President Donald J. Trump, vote to open a formal impeachment inquiry
and provide President Trump with fundamental constitutional
protections.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 24, 2019
Mr. Graham (for himself, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Thune, Mr.
Blunt, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Burr, Mr. Barrasso, Mr.
Wicker, Mr. Risch, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Paul, Mr. Lee, Mr. Johnson, Mr.
Scott of South Carolina, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Cruz, Mrs. Capito, Mr.
Cassidy, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Daines, Mr. Perdue, Ms. Ernst,
Mr. Tillis, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Young, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mrs.
Blackburn, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Moran, Mr. Hoeven,
Mr. Rubio, Mr. Braun, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Sasse, Mr.
Toomey, Ms. McSally, and Mr. Sullivan) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules and
Administration
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the House of Representatives
should, consistent with long-standing practice and precedent, prior to
proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into
President Donald J. Trump, vote to open a formal impeachment inquiry
and provide President Trump with fundamental constitutional
protections.
Whereas one of the cornerstones of the American Constitution is due process: the
right to confront your accuser, call witnesses on your behalf, and
challenge the accusations against you;
Whereas the House of Representatives is abandoning more than a century's worth
of precedent and tradition in impeachment proceedings and denying
President Trump basic fairness and due process accorded every American;
Whereas, in our nation's history, the House has on three occasions moved to
formally investigate whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach a
President, and in all three of these cases, the full House voted on a
resolution authorizing the House Judiciary Committee to determine
whether to impeach the President;
Whereas, in the case of President Trump, a formal impeachment process involving
debate and a vote by the full House prior to taking each step in the
process has been replaced by a press conference by the Speaker of the
House;
Whereas the proposition that the Speaker acting alone may direct committees to
initiate impeachment proceedings without any debate or a vote on the
House floor is unprecedented and undemocratic;
Whereas the House is denying President Trump due process within the ``inquiry''
itself;
Whereas, for the impeachment investigations of President Richard M. Nixon and
President William J. Clinton, the House Judiciary Committee adopted
rules of procedure to provide due process rights and ensure fairness;
Whereas these rights included--
(1) allowing the President to be represented by counsel;
(2) permitting the President's counsel to be present at all hearings
and depositions;
(3) permitting the President's counsel to present evidence and object
to the admission of evidence;
(4) allowing the President's counsel to call and cross-examine
witnesses; and
(5) giving the President's counsel access to, and the ability to
respond to, the evidence adduced by the Committee;
Whereas, by contrast, the House's current impeachment ``inquiry'' provides none
of these basic rights and protections to President Trump;
Whereas the main allegations against President Trump are based on assertions and
testimony from witnesses whom he is unable to confront, as part of a
process in which he is not able to offer witnesses in his defense or
have a basic understanding of the allegations lodged against him;
Whereas all witness interviews that have been conducted thus far in the House
have been behind closed doors with limited minority participation;
Whereas the House's current impeachment ``inquiry'' ignores the procedural
rights given to the investigating committee's minority in previous
Presidential impeachments, including granting equal subpoena power to
both the chair and ranking member of the committee;
Whereas, the House is denying President Trump the same basic pre-inquiry rights
afforded to President Clinton;
Whereas the Whitewater Investigation involved nearly five years of painstaking
investigative work by a special counsel and an independent counsel
before the House even voted to have the Judiciary Committee open an
impeachment inquiry;
Whereas President Clinton vigorously fought that investigation, including by
raising multiple privilege claims and he was permitted to fully litigate
those claims through the courts;
Whereas President Trump, by contrast, fully cooperated with Special Counsel
Robert S. Mueller's investigation;
Whereas, during the course of the Mueller investigation, President Trump never
raised privilege claims, he turned over more than one million pages of
documents, he directed senior aides to testify freely, including making
the White House Counsel available to testify for more than thirty hours,
and he agreed to answer written questions on penalty of perjury; and
Whereas, rather than giving President Trump the same due process rights that
President Clinton had to raise and litigate claims of constitutional
privilege, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has
repeatedly threatened to use President Trump's assertion of his
constitutional rights as evidence of obstruction and to impeach
President Trump for trying to litigate those claims: Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) calls on the House of Representatives, prior to
proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into
President Trump, to vote to initiate a formal impeachment
inquiry;
(2) calls on the House of Representatives to provide
President Trump, like every other American, with due process,
to include the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses
on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the
accusations against him that would form any basis for
impeachment; and
(3) calls on the House of Representatives to provide
members of the minority with the ability to participate fully
in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas
and other compulsory process.
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