By Junell                                              H.C.R. No. 9
         76R6616 LHO-D                           
                             HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-1           WHEREAS, Two years after filing suit against the tobacco
 1-2     industry, Texas' attorney general announced on January 16, 1998,
 1-3     that the industry had agreed to the largest settlement in the
 1-4     history of tobacco litigation; and
 1-5           WHEREAS, Tireless negotiations between Texas and the
 1-6     defendants ensued, resulting in a memorandum of understanding
 1-7     signed in July 1998 that resolved all outstanding differences and
 1-8     settled Texas' lawsuit against the tobacco industry; and
 1-9           WHEREAS, The federal government played no role in the
1-10     litigation for Texas' $17.3 billion settlement with the tobacco
1-11     companies and has declined to bring its own lawsuit against the
1-12     industry, but now, through the Health Care Financing
1-13     Administration, asserts that it is entitled to a significant share
1-14     of state settlements on the basis that it represents the federal
1-15     share of Medicaid costs; and
1-16           WHEREAS, Texas bore all of the risk and expense in the
1-17     litigation and settlement negotiations, receiving no assistance
1-18     from the federal government, and is entitled to all of the funds
1-19     negotiated in the tobacco settlement agreement; and
1-20           WHEREAS, United States Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas
1-21     and Bob Graham of Florida have introduced bipartisan legislation,
1-22     S. 346, to prohibit the federal government from seizing any part of
1-23     the tobacco settlement, and similar legislation, H.R. 351, has been
1-24     introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives; now, therefore, be
 2-1     it
 2-2           RESOLVED, That the 76th Legislature of the State of Texas
 2-3     hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States not to
 2-4     make federal claims against the proceeds of the Texas tobacco
 2-5     settlement; and, be it further
 2-6           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
 2-7     copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
 2-8     the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of
 2-9     the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of
2-10     the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
2-11     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
2-12     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.