[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 126 (Thursday, August 1, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5770-S5772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-171. A resolution adopted by the City Council of the 
     City of Fort Bragg, California, supporting a sustained 
     ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a release of 
     all hostages, and immediate humanitarian aid for the 
     civilians of Gaza; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
       POM-172. A joint resolution adopted by the General Assembly 
     of the State of Tennessee applying to the United States 
     Congress pursuant to Article V of the United States 
     Constitution to call a convention for proposing amendments to 
     set a limit on the number of terms to which a person may be 
     elected as a Member of the United States House of 
     Representatives and to set a limit on the number of terms to 
     which a person may be elected as a Member of the United 
     States Senate; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

                      House Joint Resolution No. 5

       Whereas, Article V of the United States Constitution 
     requires the United States Congress to call a convention for 
     the purpose of proposing amendments to the United States 
     Constitution upon application of two-thirds of the 
     legislatures of the several states; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives of the One Hundred 
     Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, the 
     Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby makes an 
     application to Congress, as provided by Article V of the 
     Constitution of the United States of America, to call a 
     convention limited to proposing an amendment to

[[Page S5771]]

     the Constitution of the United States of America to set a 
     limit on the number of terms to which a person may be elected 
     as a member of the United States House of Representatives and 
     to set a limit on the number of terms to which a person may 
     be elected as a member of the United States Senate; and be it 
     further
       Resolved, That copies of this application be sent to the 
     President and the Secretary of the Senate of the United 
     States, and the Speaker and Clerk of the House of 
     Representatives of the United States; to the members of the 
     said Senate and House of Representatives from this State; and 
     to the presiding officers of each of the legislative houses 
     in the several states. requesting their cooperation; and be 
     it further
       Resolved, That this application be considered as covering 
     the same subject matter as the applications from other states 
     to Congress to call a convention to set a limit on the number 
     of terms to which a person may be elected to the House of 
     Representatives of the United States and to the Senate of the 
     United States; and that this application be aggregated with 
     the same for the purpose of attaining the two-thirds of 
     states necessary to require Congress to call a limited 
     convention on this subject; and that this application will 
     not be aggregated with any other applications on any other 
     subject; and be it further
       Resolved, That this application constitutes a continuing 
     application in accordance with Article V of the Constitution 
     of the United States of America until the legislatures of at 
     least two-thirds of the several states have made applications 
     on the same subject.
                                  ____

       POM-173. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the State of 
     California acknowledging the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide 
     of 1915-1923; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

                        Senate Resolution No. 83

       Whereas, More than 1,500,000 Armenian men, women, and 
     children were systematically exterminated in an effort to 
     annihilate the Armenian nation in the first genocide of 
     modern times, thousands of surviving Armenian women and 
     children were forcibly converted and Islamized, and hundreds 
     of thousands more were subjected to ethnic cleansing during 
     the period of the modern Republic of Turkey from 1924 to 
     1937; and
       Whereas, The Armenian population, along with other 
     Christians in the Ottoman Empire, endured mass killings and 
     atrocities, constituting severe violations of human rights; 
     and
       Whereas, The Republic of Azerbaijan also committed 
     massacres in various regions between 1918 and 1920; and
       Whereas, These crimes resulted in the permanent 
     displacement of Armenians and other targeted communities from 
     their historic homelands, leading to the usurpation of 
     churches, cultural institutions, and property; and
       Whereas, Armenians, with a rich history of over four 
     millennia in Asia Minor and the Caucasus, faced persecution 
     and brutality under Turkish rulers; and
       Whereas, Political leaders in the Ottoman Empire pursued a 
     pan-Turkic agenda, leading to the massacres of Armenians, 
     Greeks, Assyrians, and other minorities; and
       Whereas, The Armenian nation survived despite the attempts 
     at annihilation, including the Hamidian massacres, the Adana 
     massacre, and the systematic genocide from 1915 to 1919; and
       Whereas, The international community, including the United 
     States, officially recognizes the Armenian Genocide, and it 
     is crucial to continue educating people about these 
     historical events; and
       Whereas, Near East Relief played a vital role in delivering 
     humanitarian assistance to survivors and rescuing over 
     1,000,000 refugees between 1915 and 1930; and
       Whereas, Racially motivated pogroms targeted' the Armenian 
     population in Soviet Azerbaijan from 1988 to 1990; and
       Whereas, The destruction of churches and cultural heritage 
     in Nakhichevan between 1997 and 2006 erased the indigenous 
     Armenian presence; and
       Whereas, The Republics of Armenia and Artsakh are symbols 
     of freedom, liberty, and democracy in the region; and
       Whereas, The Republic of Turkey, despite evidence and 
     historical truth, denies the Armenian Genocide, perpetuating 
     the suffering of survivors and depriving the Armenian nation 
     of justice; and
       Whereas, California is home to the largest Armenian 
     American population in the United States, contributing 
     significantly to various fields; and
       Whereas, Recognizing the Armenian Genocide is crucial for 
     preserving cultural and historic memory and preventing 
     similar atrocities; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That the 
     Senate designates the year 2024 as the ``State of California 
     Year of Commemoration of the Anniversary of the Armenian 
     Genocide of 1915-1923'' to ensure proper commemoration and 
     education through statewide events; and be it further
       Resolved, That the month of April 2024 is designated as the 
     ``State of California Month of Commemoration of the 109th 
     Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923''; and be 
     it further
       Resolved, That the Senate commends educators for their 
     efforts in teaching about human rights and genocide and 
     encourages continued enhancement of these educational 
     initiatives; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Senate acknowledges the exceptional 
     service of Near East Relief and pledges collaboration with 
     community groups for educational and cultural events; and be 
     it further
       Resolved, That the Senate deplores ongoing efforts to deny 
     the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide; and be it 
     further
       Resolved, That the Senate calls upon the President and 
     Congress of the United States to reaffirm the historical 
     truth of the Armenian Genocide; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Senate calls on the President to work 
     toward equitable Armenian-Turkish relations and emphasizes 
     the importance of religious freedom and the return of 
     historical properties; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Senate urges the United States 
     government to halt military assistance to Azerbaijan, 
     emphasizing the rights of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh; and 
     be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies 
     of this resolution to relevant officials and authorities, 
     including the President, Vice President, Speaker of the 
     House, Majority Leader of the Senate, California Governor, 
     Members of Congress, California State Legislature, and 
     Superintendent of Public Instruction.
                                  ____

       POM-174. A resolution adopted by the Town of Plainfield, 
     Vermont, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the 
     West Bank; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
       POM-175. A resolution adopted by the House of 
     Representatives of the State of Louisiana urging the United 
     States Congress to reform the Foreign Intelligence & 
     Surveillance Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
     Court and restore the rights of privacy and unreasonable 
     search and seizure that have been taken from the American 
     people by actions of Congress; to the Committee on the 
     Judiciary.

                       Senate Resolution No. 111

       Whereas, the United States Constitution was enacted as the 
     foundational law of the land in 1787; and
       Whereas, the first ten amendments of the United States 
     Constitution contain the inviolate and irrevocable set of 
     God-given and inalienable rights that all persons in the 
     United States of America maintain; and
       Whereas, foundational in these rights are speech, assembly, 
     search and seizure with a valid warrant, to face one's 
     accuser, religion, private property, and many others; and
       Whereas, there have been many moments in the nation's 
     history when the arms of government and tyrannical rules and 
     congress have tried to curtail and subvert these liberties 
     and withhold the rights of citizens to further governmental 
     objectives; and
       Whereas, the misdeeds of government include Woodrow 
     Wilson's Sedition Act, which imprisoned Americans for 
     speaking out against United States involvement in World War 
     I, the Palmer Raids which ushered in an era of kickdown 
     searches and harassment of political opponents, the 
     imprisonment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry during 
     World War II, repeated and incessant violation of the Fourth 
     Amendment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and 
     elements of the American intelligence community, and the 
     century long Jim Crow era, which saw tacit and active 
     governmental measures to repress the rights of Americans of 
     color; and
       Whereas, the Church Hearings of the mid 1970s brought to 
     light many misdeeds of the United States government and 
     precipitated badly needed reform of federal law enforcement 
     and intelligence community activities; and
       Whereas, in 1978, the United States government took great 
     steps and established clear procedures for the physical and 
     electronic surveillance and collection of foreign 
     intelligence information and separated out protections for 
     United States citizens by the Foreign Intelligence and 
     Surveillance Act (FISA); and
       Whereas, the FISA law established the Foreign Intelligence 
     Surveillance Court (FISC) which is a court that holds 
     nonpublic sessions to consider issuing federal search 
     warrants; and
       Whereas, the FISC lacks many of the constitutionally 
     provided precautions afforded to litigants in other federal 
     courts of law, such as the right of a private party to be 
     present at the proceedings; further, the FISC has been called 
     out and cited as being the subject of misfeasance and 
     malfeasance by less than scrupulous intelligence and law 
     enforcement officers and agencies; and
       Whereas, Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald 
     Reagan each established needed restraints on the intelligence 
     community and law enforcement directed guardrails for 
     protection of private citizens, culminating with President 
     Reagan's Executive Order 12333; and
       Whereas, Executive Order 12333 underscored the needs and 
     requirements to provide timely and accurate information about 
     American enemies and underscored the protection of 
     constitutional rights of American citizens; and
       Whereas, for most of the decades of the 1980s and 1990s, 
     the intelligence community and FBI appeared to be behaving 
     and respecting the rights of citizens in the United States; 
     and
       Whereas, in 2001, after the attack on the United States by 
     foreign Islamic terrorists from Southwest Asia, the United 
     States Congress and the Bush Administration moved

[[Page S5772]]

     with reckless haste by greatly empowering the American 
     intelligence community, FBI, and other federal entities by 
     broadly expanding surveillance powers under the broad guise 
     of ``protecting'' the American citizens; and
       Whereas, the outcome of the efforts to protect has resulted 
     in nearly all semblances of privacy being taken away by the 
     actions of the United States Congress. The outcome of the 
     family of law passed in the aftermath of what is known as 9/
     11 is that no phone is guaranteed to be private, no email 
     communication can be considered secure, and the emergence of 
     a leviathan of a police state capable of chilling suppression 
     of our God-given liberties; and
       Whereas, as a result of the USA Patriot Act, a citizen can 
     become the subject of a purported terror investigation and 
     directed by law not to tell anyone of an invasive search on 
     his home, under penalty of prison; and
       Whereas, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act violates the 
     Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution by 
     ignoring the prohibition of warrantless searches against 
     United States citizens; and
       Whereas, Section 215 also violates the Fifth Amendment by 
     prohibiting ex post facto notice of warrantless searches and 
     thereby violating the basic tenets of due process guaranteed 
     to citizens of the United States; and
       Whereas, it is the American ethos to right wrongs and 
     correct governmental errors such as the eradication of 
     slavery, the end of the Jim Crow era, the awarding of voting 
     rights to women, and many others. Therefore, be it further
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives does hereby 
     memorialize the United States Congress to fully repeal and 
     rewrite every word of the USA Patriot Act and does hereby 
     implore the Congress to turn its attention to the rights of 
     the free people of the United States of America. Be it 
     further
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives implores both 
     the governor of the state of Louisiana and the attorney 
     general to stand up for the citizens of our state and not 
     participate in any violations of any of our rights guaranteed 
     in our Bill of Rights, which are a product of the sacrifice 
     of our ancestors and have been maintained by two hundred 
     fifty years of commitment to the rule of law and the 
     supremacy of the individual over the government. Be it 
     further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to 
     the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives of the United States Congress and to each 
     member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.

                          ____________________