United States HRES 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.

Bill Text

IV
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 Mem-
bers of the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress.
Whereas, on November 6, 2018, in an election widely re-
garded as a referendum on the performance and dis-
approval 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 re-
store the system of checks and balances designed by the
Framers in 1787 in Philadelphia;
Whereas the Representatives elected to the One Hundred Six-
teenth Congress comprise the most diverse class in Amer-
ican history with respect to its racial, ethnic, and reli-
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•HRES 494 IH
gious composition, and also includes the largest contin-
gent 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 Common-
wealth 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 con-
sisting 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
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•HRES 494 IH
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 regard-
ing the inhumane conditions to which detainees were
being subjected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protec-
tion 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 Represent-
atives 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 respon-
sibilities and privileges of duly elected Members of Con-
gress;
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 ca-
tastrophe, 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;
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•HRES 494 IH
Whereas the recent statements of the President are inac-
curate and offensive but consistent with prior statements
he has made to stoke divis