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78S40331 CME-D
By: Van Arsdale H.C.R. No. 1
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Defense of Marriage Act was approved in a
bipartisan effort by 342 of the 435 members of the United States
House of Representatives in the 104th Congress, including eight
cosponsors from the Texas delegation to the congress; in fact,
bipartisan support for the act extended to the United States Senate
where 85 members, including both senators from Texas, voted for its
passage; and
WHEREAS, The legislation, signed into law by President
William Jefferson Clinton in September 1996, established a federal
definition of "marriage" as only a legal union between one man and
one woman as husband and wife and defined "spouse" to mean only a
person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife; and
WHEREAS, Similar legislation is now before the 108th
Congress; Senate Joint Resolution 30 and House Joint Resolution 56
propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to
provide that marriage shall consist only of the union of a man and a
woman and to prohibit the U.S. Constitution, the constitution of
any state, or any state or federal law to be construed to require
that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred on
unmarried couples or groups; and
WHEREAS, This proposed constitutional amendment would
constitutionally guarantee what is explicitly provided for in the
United States Code as a result of the passage of the Defense of
Marriage Act in 1996; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 78th Legislature of the State of Texas,
4th Called Session, respectfully encourage the Congress of the
United States to enact Senate Joint Resolution 30 and House Joint
Resolution 56, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the
United States relating to marriage; 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.