By: Burnam H.C.R. No. 154
 
 
 
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, The elemental source for initiating congressional
  impeachment proceedings is found in The Constitution, Jefferson's
  Manual, and Rules of the United States House of Representatives;
  Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of Parliamentary Practice
  authorizes federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint
  resolution of a state or territorial legislature as a matter of
  privilege; and
         WHEREAS, Precedent for employing this authority is
  well-established and documented in Hinds' Precedents of the House
  of Representatives of the United States; one such entry relates to a
  1903 joint resolution passed by the Florida state legislature
  requesting that the U.S. Congress impeach U.S. District Judge
  Charles Swayne that resulted in a senate trial; and
         WHEREAS, Invoking this authority, the people of the state of
  Texas charge that President George W. Bush has violated the United
  States Constitution and other federal law and abused the power of
  his office to the extreme detriment of the country and the interests
  of its citizens, actions that constitute high crimes and
  misdemeanors; and
         WHEREAS, President Bush conspired with others to defraud the
  United States of America by intentionally misleading the congress
  and the nation regarding an Iraqi threat to the American people to
  justify a war in direct defiance of the United Nations Security
  Council and in violation of Section 371, Title 18, United States
  Code; in so doing, President Bush and members of his
  administration:  1) overstated the offensive capabilities of Iraq,
  including that country's supposed possession of weapons of mass
  destruction, and manipulated and distorted intelligence relating
  to Iraq's weapons program during a plenary session of the United
  Nations and in direct contradiction to evidence gathered by
  international weapons inspectors; 2) manipulated public opinion by
  repeatedly and erroneously linking Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi
  government with the terrorist organization responsible for the
  attacks of September 11, 2001, al Qaeda; and 3) manipulated public
  opinion by stating in the State of the Union Address that Saddam
  Hussein had sought "significant quantities of uranium from Africa,"
  despite confirmation from the Central Intelligence Agency and
  officials from foreign governments that the documents supporting
  these claims were forged; and
         WHEREAS, The Bush Administration's decision to invade Iraq in
  2003 was an unnecessarily reckless endeavor; while Saddam Hussein
  was a despotic leader who had used chemical weapons against Iran, as
  well as the Kurdish and Shia people, and required prudent and
  efficacious attention by the United States and the international
  community in order to maintain peace and stability in the Middle
  East, the invasion of Iraq, in fact, necessitated the removal of
  United Nations weapons inspectors who were on the ground in Iraq and
  uninhibited from performing their job of monitoring Iraq's weapons
  of mass destruction capabilities; in fact, during the 11 years
  before the invasion, the United States enforced a no-fly zone over
  60 percent of Iraq's airspace, significantly restricting the
  country's military movement and activity throughout its territory;
  and
         WHEREAS, Indeed, Iraq posed no threat to the territory or
  people of the United States, yet the 2003 invasion of Iraq has
  resulted in the deaths of more than 3,200 American soldiers and a
  reported 59,000 Iraqi civilians, over 23,000 wounded American
  soldiers, and severely diminished American military readiness; the
  fiscal cost of the war will reach $500 billion by the end of 2007;
  and
         WHEREAS, In addition, to meet the needed manpower to execute
  the invasion, President Bush has federalized and deployed members
  of the Texas National Guard overseas, thereby subverting the power
  granted to congress under Section 8, Article 1, United States
  Constitution, to call "forth the militia to execute the laws of the
  Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions"; regrettably,
  the illegal deployment of the Texas National Guard deprives the
  state of its primary mechanism for defense and emergency response,
  needlessly jeopardizing the safety of Texans; and
         WHEREAS, Under the guise of the war on terror, the Bush
  Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other
  sovereign nations without charge or trial; despite these secretive
  detentions, the United States has been embarrassed by revelations
  of torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and evidence
  suggests that President Bush has authorized the use of similar acts
  of torture in the interrogation of detainees in American facilities
  around the world; and
         WHEREAS, These detentions are clear violations of
  international and federal law; as a signatory to the Geneva
  Conventions, the United States is bound to provisions of Article 13
  requiring that "Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely
  treated . . ." and Article 17 stating that "no physical or mental
  torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on
  prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind
  whatever"; and
         WHEREAS, Furthermore, the War Crimes Act of 1996 provides
  that a person who acts in breach of the Geneva Conventions has
  committed a war crime and is subject to punishment under federal
  law; similarly, Article VI of the United States Constitution
  provides that ". . . all treaties made, or which shall be made,
  under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law
  of the land . . . ."; and
         WHEREAS, The Bush Administration's defiance of the Geneva
  Conventions has potentially threatened the lives and well-being of
  American soldiers captured as prisoners of war in future conflicts;
  likewise, the Bush Administration's defiance of international law
  has tarnished the United States' reputation as a country founded on
  principles of human rights and diminished America's integrity and
  influence in the international community; and
         WHEREAS, In an effort to further manipulate public opinion
  relating to the justification for the Iraq war, the Bush
  Administration leaked classified information, knowingly revealing
  the identities of covert U.S. intelligence agents and exposing them
  to potential harm and retribution; and
         WHEREAS, The Bush Administration's breaches of law are not
  limited to international affairs, having similarly violated the
  public trust by suppressing scientific information and altering
  government documents relating to the causes and effects of global
  warming with the intention of deceiving the American public; and
         WHEREAS, President Bush's illegal actions have also
  undermined the balance of power between the branches of government;
  in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, President Bush has
  publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to
  contravene provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
  of 1978, specifically authorizing the agency to spy on American
  citizens without securing a search warrant; and
         WHEREAS, President Bush has also subverted congressional
  authority with regard to domestic policy by filing hundreds of
  signing statements that declare the administration's official
  legal interpretation of legislation passed by congress; in more
  than 750 instances, the president has asserted an authority to
  ignore numerous sections of the bills he has signed into law,
  including legislation relating to military rules and regulations,
  affirmative-action provisions, requirements that congress be told
  about immigration services problems, "whistle-blower" protections
  for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political
  interference in federally funded research; and
         WHEREAS, Moreover, President Bush has overtly undermined the
  authority of congress; the Bush Administration has undermined
  specific provisions of the Clean Air Act by changing Environmental
  Protection Agency rules to allow older power plants, refineries,
  and factories to upgrade their facilities without installing newer,
  more advanced pollution control technologies, thereby increasing
  the amount of pollution and threatening the health of all
  Americans; and
         WHEREAS, In order to secure passage of the Medicare
  Prescription Drug, Modernization, and Improvement Act of 2003, the
  Bush Administration knowingly misled congress regarding the cost of
  the bill by providing a $400 billion cost estimate to lawmakers
  while government documents revealed the true cost was calculated by
  administration officials to exceed $500 billion; be it
         RESOLVED, That the 80th Legislature of the State of Texas
  submit the charges contained herein to the United States House of
  Representatives under the authority of Section 603 of The
  Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and Rules of the United States
  House of Representatives; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That the charges contained herein constitute proof
  that the president of the United States has wilfully violated his
  oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of
  the United States; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the charges
  contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to
  hold any other office in the United States.