[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 937 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 937
Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to preserve liberty by
operating within the enumerated powers in the Constitution of the
United States and its founding principles.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 22, 2022
Mr. Cawthorn submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and in addition to the
Committees on the Judiciary, Ways and Means, Foreign Affairs,
Agriculture, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Financial
Services, Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans' Affairs, Armed
Services, Natural Resources, Rules, and Science, Space, and Technology,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to preserve liberty by
operating within the enumerated powers in the Constitution of the
United States and its founding principles.
Whereas the following 10 pillars are the most essential and impactful policy
issues to the American people:
(1) Government spending.
(2) Economy.
(3) Government reform.
(4) Health care.
(5) Education.
(6) Culture and family unit.
(7) Energy and environment.
(8) Immigration.
(9) Technical innovation.
(10) Defense and veterans.
Whereas the United States is the greatest, most benevolent, most prosperous, and
most successful country in the history of human civilization;
Whereas the Constitution of the United States, which has endured for nearly a
quarter of a millennium, is a towering and unparalleled achievement that
has made the United States the world's oldest democracy and oldest
independent constitutional republic;
Whereas the United States is built on the rule of law and institutional
equality;
Whereas the rights of the people of the United States derive from natural law
and are transcendent and inalienable; our rights do not derive from any
temporal authority, government, national origin, or any racial or ethnic
identification; this vision is as revolutionary today as it was almost
250 years ago;
Whereas the United States tradition of principled pluralism has allowed it to
become a bastion of civil rights and individual liberty as evidenced by
the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the success of free
market capitalism;
Whereas the United States helped bring an end to World War I, defeated
totalitarianism in World War II, implemented the Marshall Plan, and
defeated Soviet Communism in the Cold War, making America and the world
more free, prosperous, and secure;
Whereas the United States constitutional Government and the free enterprise
system it enables is the key to our future freedom and prosperity, and
is the world's best hope for confronting 21st-century economic,
technological, social, and political challenges;
Whereas no economic system has lifted more people out of poverty than the free
enterprise system;
Whereas Socialist policies have failed catastrophically, particularly in United
States cities, and inflicted enormous economic pain and injustice on
predominantly middle to lower income families and minority communities;
Whereas policymakers have a moral and institutional responsibility to create the
conditions for the creation of 21st-century jobs for American workers;
Whereas United States national security depends on its economic security, which
is imperiled by the Federal Government's unsustainable fiscal course and
national debt;
Whereas Congress should restore regular order, end the era of ``omnibus''
spending bills, and aspire to consider legislation that addresses one
subject with one bill in a manner that it is targeted, transparent, and
comprehensible to the public;
Whereas the House of Representatives is the People's House and should be
accessible and open to ensure that every citizen has a right to petition
their government;
Whereas the United States health care system is operating within an antiquated
regulatory framework created in 1942 that is incompatible with the 21st-
century economy;
Whereas the problem in health care is not that the free market has failed; the
problem is it has never been tried;
Whereas patients in the United States are demanding freedom, choice, and
control;
Whereas socialized, government-run health care systems like those in the United
Kingdom would be cruelly inefficient and lead to rationing;
Whereas the reckless, irresponsible, and ineffective Green New Deal suggests a
permanent lockdown on the American economy not unlike the economic
duress of COVID-19, grant Communist China a competitive advantage, and
inflict injustice on American communities through higher energy prices
all while doing nothing to reduce global temperatures;
Whereas using concerns about climate to advance unrelated Socialist goals like
government-run health care and universal basic income is an
irresponsible tactic that delays reforms that can improve environmental
stewardship;
Whereas an ``all of the above'' energy policy that utilizes renewables, nuclear
energy, and fossil fuels is superior to an ``everything but'' policy
that naively and dangerously undermines American energy independence;
Whereas hydraulic fracking, a private sector innovation, has done more to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions than any other innovation or government
regulation in the past two decades;
Whereas free economies are clean economies;
Whereas central planning traps people in poverty and slows innovation;
Whereas a carbon tax is a coercive and counterproductive government mechanism
that would delay the development and deployment of clean energy
technology;
Whereas the Democrats' climate alarmism is intellectually dishonest based on
their unwillingness to take immediate action;
Whereas the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and free expression of
thought are essential to developing effective policies that advance the
public good and facilitate the peaceful resolution of conflict;
Whereas illiberalism or ``cancel culture'' is anti-intellectual, anti-American,
and a rejection of the foundational principles of pluralism;
Whereas the Second Amendment was created to protect the First Amendment;
Whereas failing schools for American children is the foremost civil liberties
issue in American society, and parents must have the right to choose the
best educational opportunity for their own child;
Whereas China is set to overtake the United States as the global leader in key
categories if the United States fails to advance a bold freedom agenda;
Whereas China is actively working to build a strategic alliance with
totalitarian and antidemocratic states like Iran, Russia, and North
Korea; and
Whereas the Democrats' failed border policy is a threat to the Nation's security
and the rule of law: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that
it is the duty of the Federal Government to--
(1) create a commission modeled after the Base Closure and
Realignment Commission (BRAC) to reduce government spending by
one-third by 2031, consistent with the findings of President
Reagan's Grace Commission report that declared one-third of
government spending is wasteful;
(2) enact a balanced budget amendment;
(3) turnaround the mismanagement of Social Security,
because Americans want to help the needy by incentivizing
people to work and get off entitlement programs;
(4) abolish the income tax and direct the Ways and Means
Committee to develop a replacement based on a consumption tax
or flat tax by 2026;
(5) expand Opportunity Zones;
(6) demand instant COVID compensation from Communist China
based on an economic analysis of lost public and private sector
revenue;
(7) promote and celebrate the American manufacturing and
agriculture industry by incentivizing domestic production;
(8) abolish the Department of Education;
(9) establish the English language as the official language
of the United States;
(10) downsize and consolidate nonessential and wasteful
functions of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy,
Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, the
Interior, Labor, and Transportation and the Environmental
Protection Agency;
(11) create a study to review all spending within Federal
agencies in order to cut outrageous waste and spending and
reallocating a portion of those funds to localized nonprofits
dedicated to fighting the opioid epidemic, promoting
entrepreneurship within the veteran community, and promoting
patriotic civil engagement;
(12) recognize the past abuse that Directors of three
letter agencies have committed in order to prevent future abuse
of power;
(13) impose term limits on Members of Congress, such as six
terms for Members of the House of Representatives and two terms
for Senators, to incentivize long-term and strategic
policymaking;
(14) impose term limits on Federal career employees;
(15) ensure all congressional bills move through proper
order in their respective committees, that all amendments are
germane, and that there is only one subject matter per one
bill;
(16) protect employer-sponsored insurance from single-
payer, government-run health care schemes that would abolish
employer-sponsored as well as individual insurance;
(17) protect patients with preexisting conditions;
(18) require price transparency;
(19) end America's 80-year discrimination against self-
employed workers by equalizing the tax treatment of health care
purchased by such individuals and employer-provided healthcare,
by providing generous subsidies, offset by cuts to government
waste, through States allowing individuals to shop for their
own health insurance and choose their own doctors;
(20) preserve health care freedom and choice and expand
health savings accounts;
(21) end monopolies in the health care system and among
hospitals by unleashing individual choice and free market
competition;
(22) guarantee health care choice for America's veterans;
(23) expand the use and availability of telemedicine;
(24) ensure that parents rights are upheld, that parents
can decide what school system is best for their child, and that
the Federal funding should follow the student to whichever
education institution the student attends without stipulation;
(25) prevent taxpayer dollars from funding anti-American
critical race theory;
(26) create a study and analysis that document decades of
failed progressive governance in our Nation's urban centers;
(27) prevent Federal funding for cities that have defunded
their police and law enforcement;
(28) recognize that life begins at conception;
(29) enact a parental bill of rights;
(30) make ``political affiliation'' protected from
workplace discrimination;
(31) protect individual Americans from violence by
recognizing that every American who can legally own a firearm
has the ability to carry and conceal firearms in every State
without a permit;
(32) prevent future weapons bans by abolishing the outdated
National Firearms Act of 1934;
(33) incentivize the use of modular nuclear reactors
through expedited permitting;
(34) incorporate underutilized hydropower into our energy
grid;
(35) invest in basic research and development to accelerate
the development and deployment of breakthrough technologies
using an ``all of the above energy'' strategy;
(36) immediately resume work on the Keystone pipeline;
(37) immediately withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement;
(38) demand that China, the world's worst polluter,
dismantle concentration camps, grant free speech rights to
religious and political minorities, and offer a formal apology
for the Tiananmen Square massacre;
(39) impose tariffs on Chinese goods that are produced
under conditions that violate American clean air standards;
(40) reform the outdated and cumbersome National
Environmental Policy Act;
(41) protect the United States access to critical minerals
to give the United States a global competitive edge;
(42) end the Democrats' irresponsible border policies,
complete President Trump's border wall, and reassert President
Reagan's vision of a ``shining city on a hill'' that includes
both walls and doors for those who want to enter our country
legally;
(43) prohibit Federal funding to sanctuary cities;
(44) focus on fighting human trafficking;
(45) formally recognize the independence and sovereignty of
Taiwan;
(46) use a portion of savings generated from the BRAC-style
government downsize commission to upgrade our Nation's
transportation and technological infrastructure by repairing
structurally deficient bridges, creating a technologically
sound 21st century highway system, and delivering broadband
access to rural areas and other underserved communities;
(47) break up big tech monopolies and reform section 230 of
the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230);
(48) deregulate cryptocurrencies and incentivize blockchain
innovation;
(49) continue President Trump's work of rebuilding
America's military and prepare it to confront 21st-century
threats;
(50) immediately return war making powers to Congress;
(51) position our military to dominate air, land, sea, and
space by upgrading existing assets and investing in cyber,
artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, and the Space
Force; and
(52) prioritize getting our veterans back to work and
easing the transition from military life to civilian life
through fellowship programs and by creating economic
opportunities.
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