[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 7 (Monday, January 14, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H536-H537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   NOTICE OF INTENTION TO OFFER RESOLUTION RAISING A QUESTION OF THE 
                        PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 2 of rule IX, I hereby 
give notice of my intention to offer a question of privileges of the 
House.
  Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the form of a resolution 
appear in the Record at this point.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Escobar). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  The form of the resolution is as follows:
  Whereas the United States has always been a proud multicultural 
Nation;
  Whereas since early in our history our Nation has recognized the 
strength that our diversity brings by making our national motto E 
Pluribus Unum;
  Whereas on July 13, 2006, on the floor of the House of 
Representatives, comparing immigrants to livestock, Representative 
Steve King of Iowa stated, ``We could also electrify this wire with the 
kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would simply be a 
discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with 
livestock all the time.'';
  Whereas on March 8, 2008, in an interview with KICD Studios, 
Representative King stated, ``I don't want to disparage anyone because 
of their race, their ethnicity, their name--whatever their religion 
their father might have been . . . I'll just say this: When you think 
about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected 
President of the United States--I mean, what does this look like to the 
rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?'';
  Whereas on May 21, 2012, while speaking with constituents in 
Pocahontas, Iowa, Representative King compared vetting immigrants to 
choosing hunting dogs saying, ``You want a good bird dog? You want one 
that's going to be aggressive? Pick the one that's the friskiest.'';
  Whereas in July 2012, at a tele-townhall, on President Barack Obama's 
place of birth, Representative King stated, ``It would have been 
awfully hard to fraudulently file the birth notice of Barack Obama 
being born in Hawaii and get that into our public libraries and that 
microfiche they keep of all the newspapers published. That doesn't mean 
there aren't some other explanations on how they might've announced 
that by telegram from Kenya. The list goes on. But drilling into that 
now, even if we could get a definitive answer and even if it turned out 
that Barack Obama was conclusively not born in America, I don't think 
we could get that case sold between now and November.'';
  Whereas on January 4, 2013, in a press release announcing the 
introduction of his bill, H.R. 140, Representative King stated, ``The 
current practice of extending U.S. citizenship to hundreds of thousands 
of `anchor babies' must end because it creates a magnet for illegal 
immigration into our country. Now is the time to ensure that the laws 
in this country do not encourage law breaking.'';
  Whereas on July 24, 2014, in an interview with Newsmax discussing 
undocumented immigrants in the United States, Representative King 
stated, ``For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out 
there who weigh 130 pounds--and they`ve got calves the size of 
cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the 
desert.'';
  Whereas on July 20, 2016, in an interview with The Washington Post, 
Representative King stated, ``The idea of multiculturalism, that every 
culture is equal--that's not objectively true.'';
  Whereas on July 18, 2016, in an appearance on MSNBC, Representative 
King stated, ``Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more 
to civilization [than White people]?'';
  Whereas on September 18, 2016, on Twitter, Representative King 
stated, that ``Cultural suicide by demographic transformation must 
end.'';
  Whereas on March 12, 2017, on Twitter, Representative King shared a 
story about far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders and added, ``We 
can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies.'';
  Whereas on March 13, 2017, on CNN, Representative King stated, ``I'd 
like to see an America that's just so homogenous that we look a lot the 
same'' and ``There's been this effort, we're going to have to replace 
that void with somebody else's babies. That's the push to bring in [so] 
much illegal immigration into America, living in enclaves, refusing to 
assimilate into the American culture and civilization.'';
  Whereas on June 12, 2018, Representative King retweeted Mark Collett, 
a self-described ``Nazi sympathizer'';
  Whereas on September 2, 2018, in an interview with Unzensuriert, a 
publication linked to a fascist Austrian political party, 
Representative King stated, ``What does this diversity bring that we 
don't already have? Mexican food, Chinese food, those things--well, 
that's fine. But what does it bring that we don't have that is worth 
the price? We have a lot of diversity within the U.S. already.'';
  Whereas on January 10, 2019, in the New York Times, Representative 
King stated ``White nationalist, White supremacist, Western 
civilization--how did that language become offensive?'';
  Whereas Representative King's statements have drawn praise from known 
White supremacists like former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke;
  Whereas Representative King dishonors not only immigrants but every 
American with his racist and xenophobic rhetoric; and
  Whereas Representative King has failed to retract his statement and 
apologize to the Members of the House

[[Page H537]]

or Americans across the country: Now, therefore, be it
  Resolved, That--
  (1) Representative Steve King of Iowa, by his despicable conduct, has 
dishonored himself and brought discredit to the House and merits the 
censure of the House for the same;
  (2) Representative Steve King of Iowa be censured;
  (3) Representative Steve King of Iowa forthwith present himself in 
the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of 
censure; and
  (4) Representative Steve King of Iowa be censured with the public 
reading of this resolution by the Speaker.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under rule IX, a resolution offered from the 
floor by a Member other than the majority leader or the minority leader 
as a question of the privileges of the House has immediate precedence 
only at a time designated by the Chair within 2 legislative days after 
the resolution is properly noticed.
  Pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the 
gentleman from Illinois will appear in the Record at this point.
  The Chair will not at this point determine whether the resolution 
constitutes a question of privilege. That determination will be made at 
the time designated for consideration of the resolution.

                          ____________________