Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that upon adoption by the House, the Speaker of the House is required to transmit without delay articles of impeachment to the Senate and must do so immediately.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 780 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that upon adoption by the House, the Speaker of the House is required to transmit without delay articles of impeachment to the Senate and must do so immediately. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 8, 2020 Mr. MEADOWS (for himself, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. GRAVES of Louisiana, Mr. NOR- MAN, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. MURPHY of North Carolina, Mr. TIMMONS, Mr. GOODEN, Mr. ARMSTRONG, Mr. GRIFFITH, Mr. CLINE, Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. WALKER, Mr. JOHN W. ROSE of Ten- nessee, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. GIBBS, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. GIANFORTE, Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana, Mr. YOHO, Mr. SCHWEIKERT, Mr. SPANO, Mr. MEUSER, Mr. GOHMERT, and Mr. RIGGLEMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Ethics, and in addi- tion to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently deter- mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that upon adoption by the House, the Speaker of the House is required to transmit without delay articles of impeach- ment to the Senate and must do so immediately. Whereas the Constitution grants the ‘‘sole Power of Impeach- ment’’ to the House of Representatives as a body, not to the Speaker or any individual Representative; VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:30 Jan 13, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR780.IH HR780 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 780 IH Whereas, on December 18, 2019, in a purely partisan vote, a majority of the House of Representatives voted to adopt 2 articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump, President of the United States; Whereas shortly after the House of Representatives voted to adopt the 2 articles of impeachment, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi unilaterally decided to withhold transmitting the articles pending information on the Sen- ate’s trial procedures while stating ‘‘right now the presi- dent is impeached’’; Whereas the House of Representatives completes its constitu- tionally mandated impeachment functions upon adopting an article of impeachment; Whereas the Constitution grants the Senate the ‘‘sole Power to try all Impeachments’’; and Whereas the Constitution provides, and the Supreme Court has affirmed, that the Senate has wide discretion to de- termine the procedures for conducting an impeachment trial: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) finds that— 2 (A) the Constitution obligates the House of 3 Representatives to transmit without delay arti- 4 cles of impeachment to the Senate upon adop- 5 tion by the House; and 6 (B) the Speaker of the House of Rep- 7 resentatives refusal to transmit articles of im- 8 peachment to the Senate is an abuse of power; 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jan 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR780.IH HR780 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 780 IH (2) strongly disapproves of the Speaker of the 1 House of Representatives unilateral and unwar- 2 ranted decision to refuse to transmit the 2 articles 3 of impeachment adopted on December 18, 2019, by 4 a majority of the House in an attempt to improperly 5 control impeachment trial procedures in the Senate; 6 and 7 (3) demands the Speaker immediately transmit 8 the articles of impeachment to the Senate to allow 9 it to exercise its ‘‘sole Power to try all Impeach- 10 ments.’’. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jan 09, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR780.IH HR780 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS