84R20579 TJB-F
 
  By: Flynn, King of Parker, Simmons, Bell, H.B. No. 98
      Laubenberg, et al.
 
  Substitute the following for H.B. No. 98:
 
  By:  King of Parker C.S.H.B. No. 98
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the Texas Balance of Powers Act.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  (a) This Act shall be known as the Texas Balance
  of Powers Act.
         (b)  The legislature finds that:
               (1)  The people of the several states comprising the
  United States of America created the federal government to be their
  agent for certain enumerated purposes and nothing more.
               (2)  The Tenth Amendment to the United States
  Constitution defines the total scope of federal power as including
  only those powers specifically delegated by the Constitution to the
  federal government. Those powers not explicitly delegated by the
  Constitution to the federal government are reserved to the states
  or to the people themselves.
               (3)  Each power delegated to the federal government by
  the United States Constitution encompasses only that power as it
  was understood at the time it was delegated, subject only to an
  expansion or limitation of that power by a subsequent amendment to
  the Constitution.
               (4)  The United States Constitution authorizes the
  United States Congress to exercise only those powers enumerated in
  Section 8, Article I, of the Constitution, as well as certain other
  powers delegated to Congress by subsequent amendments to the
  Constitution. Article VI of the Constitution makes supreme the
  Constitution and federal laws enacted pursuant to the Constitution,
  further requiring that public officials at all levels and in all
  branches of government support the Constitution.
               (5)  Paragraph 3, Section 8, Article I, of the United
  States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress only
  the specific power to regulate commerce with "foreign nations, and
  among the several states, and with Indian tribes." This provision
  was never intended to authorize the federal government to assume
  any power beyond the regulation of transactions in those three
  specific categories. Through vastly distorted interpretations of
  the meaning of the Commerce Clause not authorized by the
  Constitution or an amendment to the Constitution, the legislative,
  executive, and judicial branches of the federal government have
  adopted and implemented countless measures not authorized by the
  language or original intent of the clause, many of which usurp the
  duties and responsibilities reserved to the states by the Tenth
  Amendment.
               (6)  Paragraph 1, Section 8, Article I, of the United
  States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress the
  power to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
  general welfare of the United States. The General Welfare Clause
  was intended and understood to ensure that Congress, when
  exercising an enumerated power, does so in a manner that serves all
  states generally, and no state or person singularly.
               (7)  The final paragraph of Section 8, Article I, of the
  United States Constitution delegates to the United States Congress
  the limited power to make laws "necessary and proper" to carry into
  execution the powers delegated by the Constitution to the United
  States government. Using this clause to expand federal power beyond
  specifically enumerated powers granted by the Constitution
  violates the plain language and original intent of that clause.
               (8)  The constitutional limitation on the scope of
  federal power and the reservation of other powers to the states or
  to the people are matters of contract between this state and its
  people, and the United States, as of the date this state was
  admitted to the United States of America.
               (9)  The federal government has acted in a manner
  inconsistent with the language, intent, and spirit of the United
  States Constitution in direct violation of the Constitution and the
  contract between this state and its people, and the United States.
  This state rejects the unauthorized and excessive abuse of power by
  the federal government that infringes on the rights of this state
  and its people and that unconstitutionally undermines, diminishes,
  and disregards the balance of powers between the states and the
  federal government established by the Constitution.
         (c)  In accordance with the United States Constitution, the
  federal government is denied by this state the power to take any
  legislative, executive, or judicial action that violates the
  Constitution, specifically including those actions that
  unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or disregard the balance
  of powers between the states and the federal government established
  by the Constitution.
         (d)  This Act serves as notice from this state to the federal
  government to cease and desist any and all unconstitutional
  activities that are outside the scope of the power delegated to it
  by the United States Constitution, including those activities that
  unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or disregard the balance
  of powers between the states and the federal government established
  by the Constitution.
         (e)  This Act calls on all state and local officials,
  especially members of law enforcement, prosecutors, members of
  local governing bodies, the attorney general, and the governor to
  honor their oath to preserve, protect, and defend the United States
  Constitution, based on the original intent of that document unless
  modified by subsequent constitutional amendment, and as such to
  stop unconstitutional federal actions.
         (f)  This state and its people retain their sovereign power
  to regulate the affairs of this state, subject only to the
  limitations prescribed by the United States Constitution.
         SECTION 2.  Subtitle Z, Title 3, Government Code, is amended
  by adding Chapter 393 to read as follows:
  CHAPTER 393.  ENFORCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION
         Sec. 393.001.  DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
               (1)  "Committee" means the Joint Legislative Committee
  on Constitutional Powers and Enforcement.
               (2)  "Federal action" includes:
                     (A)  a federal law;
                     (B)  a federal agency rule, policy, or standard;
                     (C)  an executive order of the president of the
  United States;
                     (D)  an order of a federal court; and
                     (E)  the making or enforcing of a treaty.
               (3)  "Unconstitutional federal action" means a federal
  action enacted, adopted, or implemented without authority
  specifically delegated to the federal government by the people and
  the states through the United States Constitution.
         Sec. 393.002.  JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON
  CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS AND ENFORCEMENT. (a) The Joint Legislative
  Committee on Constitutional Powers and Enforcement is established
  as a permanent joint committee of the legislature.
         (b)  The committee consists of the following 14 members:
               (1)  seven members of the house of representatives
  appointed by the speaker of the house; and
               (2)  seven members of the senate appointed by the
  lieutenant governor.
         (c)  Not more than four house members of the committee and
  four senate members of the committee may be members of the same
  political party. 
         (d)  Members of the committee serve two-year terms beginning
  with the convening of each regular legislative session.
         (e)  If a vacancy occurs on the committee, the appropriate
  appointing officer shall appoint a member of the house or senate, as
  appropriate, to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.
         (f)  The speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor
  shall each designate one member of the committee as a joint chair of
  the committee. 
         (g)  The committee shall meet at the call of either joint
  chair.
         (h)  A majority of the members of the committee constitute a
  quorum.
         Sec. 393.003.  COMMITTEE REVIEW OF FEDERAL ACTION. (a) The
  committee may review any federal action to determine whether the
  action is an unconstitutional federal action.
         (b)  Not later than the 180th day after the date the
  committee holds its first public hearing to review a specific
  federal action, the committee shall vote to determine whether the
  action is an unconstitutional federal action.
         (c)  The committee may determine that a federal action is an
  unconstitutional federal action by majority vote.
         (d)  The committee shall report to the governor and the
  attorney general each federal action that the committee determines
  to be an unconstitutional federal action. The committee may include
  in the report one or more effective and constitutional ways to
  prevent the application of the federal action in this state.
         (e)  Not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year,
  the committee shall submit a report to the speaker of the house of
  representatives and the lieutenant governor that lists each federal
  action determined by the committee to be an unconstitutional
  federal action since the committee's previous report. The committee
  shall include in the report one or more recommendations for
  effective and constitutional legislative responses to the federal
  action.
         Sec. 393.004.  ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION. The attorney
  general may represent this state or a political subdivision of this
  state in an action regarding the refusal or failure of the state or
  the political subdivision to participate in the implementation or
  enforcement of an unconstitutional federal action.
         SECTION 3.  (a) Not later than the 30th day following the
  effective date of this Act:
               (1)  the speaker of the house of representatives and
  the lieutenant governor shall appoint the initial members of the
  Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Powers and
  Enforcement established under Section 393.002, Government Code, as
  added by this Act; and
               (2)  the secretary of state shall forward official
  copies of this Act to the president of the United States, to the
  speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the
  Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of
  the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this Act be
  officially entered in the Congressional Record.
         (b)  Not later than the 45th day following the effective date
  of this Act, the speaker of the house of representatives and the
  lieutenant governor shall forward official copies of this Act to
  the presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states.
         SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
  a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
  provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
  Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
  Act takes effect September 1, 2015.