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  81R5789 MMS-F
 
  By: Creighton, Hughes, Berman, Gattis, H.C.R. No. 50
      Guillen, et al.
 
 
 
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
  United States reads as follows: "The powers not delegated to the
  United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
  States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people";
  and
         WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of
  federal power as being that specifically granted by the
  Constitution of the United States and no more; and
         WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment
  means that the federal government was created by the states
  specifically to be an agent of the states; and
         WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated
  as agents of the federal government; and
         WHEREAS, Many federal laws are directly in violation of the
  Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and
         WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of
  the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union
  of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal
  government may not usurp; and
         WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says,
  "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
  Republican Form of Government," and the Ninth Amendment states that
  "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
  be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people";
  and
         WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New
  York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that congress may not
  simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the
  states; and
         WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations
  and some now pending from the present administration and from
  congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States;
  now, therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
  hereby claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the
  Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise
  enumerated and granted to the federal government by the
  Constitution of the United States; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal
  government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective
  immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these
  constitutionally delegated powers; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that
  directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal
  penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation
  or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it
  further
         RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
  copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
  the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
  senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
  Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
  resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
  memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.