IV 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 286 

Directing certain officials of the executive branch to provide information 

to the House of Representatives that will enable the House to meet 

its constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive 

branch by investigating potential conflicts of interests of President Donald J. Trump. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 27, 2017 

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in 

addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by 

the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Directing certain officials of the executive branch to provide 

information to the House of Representatives that will 

enable the House to meet its constitutional responsibility 

to conduct oversight of the executive branch by investigating potential conflicts of interests of President Donald J. Trump. 

Whereas, on October 18, 2016, then-candidate Donald J. 

Trump communicated via Twitter: ‘‘I will Make Our Government Honest Again—believe me. But first, I’m going 

to have to #DrainTheSwamp in DC’’; 


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•HRES 286 IH 

Whereas President Trump subsequently nominated a team of 

wealthy and connected insiders to lead his Cabinet, many 

of whom have been forced to withdraw from consideration 

because of irrevocable conflicts of interest; 

Whereas, as President-Elect, President Trump announced 

that he would be ‘‘leaving [his] great business’’ to his 

adult children, a move he felt would be ‘‘visually important’’; 

Whereas President Trump has taken no steps to untangle his 

financial interest in his business holdings, to limit his 

ability to advise the nominal managers of the Trump Organization, or to prevent other interests from currying 

favor with the White House by doing business with companies that might benefit the President’s bottom line; 

Whereas President Trump has reversed White House policy 

and now refuses to release visitor logs to the public; 

Whereas, on May 30, 2014, President Trump stated: ‘‘If I 

decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns, absolutely’’; 

Whereas, on January 24, 2016, President Trump stated that 

he would release his ‘‘very big returns . . . in the next 

period of time’’; 

Whereas, on February 25, 2016, President Trump changed 

his position and stated that, although he could not release his tax returns while under audit, he would do so 

‘‘as soon as the audit is done’’; 

Whereas, on May 11, 2016, President Trump communicated 

via Twitter: ‘‘In interview I told @AP that my taxes are 

under routine audit and I would release my tax returns 

when audit is complete, not after election!’’; 


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Whereas, on January 22, 2017, White House senior adviser 

Kellyanne Conway stated that ‘‘the White House response is that he’s not going to release his returns’’; 

Whereas President Trump has directed the Congress to act 

on comprehensive reform of the Internal Revenue Code; 

Whereas without the President’s tax returns, the public cannot know how the full extent to which any proposed reforms will personally benefit the President; 

Whereas, on January 11, 2017, President Trump insisted 

that he has ‘‘no dealings with Russia’’; 

Whereas it has been widely reported that President Trump 

sought and received funding from Russian investors, especially when American banks stopped lending to him 

after his multiple bankruptcies; 

Whereas Donald Trump, Jr., who runs day-to-day business 

operations for his father’s companies, has stated: ‘‘Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of 

a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in 

from Russia’’; 

Whereas, on March 20, 2017, James B. Comey, Director of 

the Federal Bureau of Investigation, confirmed the existence of a Federal investigation into multiple connections 

between the Trump campaign and the regime of Russian 

President Vladimir Putin; 

Whereas it has been reported that President Trump has personally guaranteed over $300,000,000 in loans to German financial institution Deutsche Bank AG; 

Whereas the Trump Administration is now responsible for 

overseeing multiple investigations into the trading and 

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ating a potentially multibillion-dollar settlement with the 

bank related to its trading of mortgage-backed securities; 

Whereas these matters represent only a few of the many instances in which President Trump has broken his promise to ‘‘drain the swamp’’; 

Whereas under the Constitution of the United States, Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive branch; 

Whereas the majority of the Committee on Oversight and 

Government Reform of the House of Representatives rejected an amendment to the committee’s oversight plan 

that would have tasked the committee with investigating 

the President’s conflicts of interest; 

Whereas Members of the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Foreign Affairs, the Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives have each advanced resolutions of inquiry designed 

to obtain information about the President’s ongoing conflicts of interest; 

Whereas the majority has blocked each of those resolutions 

from consideration on the House floor; 

Whereas the continuing refusal of the majority to conduct 

even basic oversight of the Trump Administration diminishes the status of the Congress as a co-equal branch of 

Government; and 

Whereas this continued neglect undermines the credibility of 

the House of Representatives and raises a question of the 

privileges of the House: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives directs 

2 the following persons to take the following actions: 


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1 (1) President Trump is directed to transmit to 

2 the House of Representatives copies of any docu3 ment, record, memorandum, correspondence, or 

4 other communication in possession of the Executive 

5 Office of the President, or any portion of such com6 munication, that refers or relates to President 

7 Trump’s proposal to maintain an interest in his 

8 business holdings, while turning over day-to-day op9 eration of those interests to his sons Donald J. 

10 Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump. 

11 (2) In support of transparency in government 

12 and the longstanding tradition of the disclosure of 

13 tax returns of Presidents and Presidential can14 didates, the Secretary of the Treasury is directed to 

15 provide the Committee on Ways and Means with the 

16 tax return information of Donald J. Trump for tax 

17 years 2007 through 2016 for review in closed execu18 tive session by the committee as provided under sec19 tion 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 

20 and directs the committee to hold a vote on report21 ing such information to the full House of Represent22 atives. 

23 (3) The Director of the Office on Government 

24 Ethics is directed to publish any waiver or exception 

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1 ment to the January 28, 2017, Executive order enti2 tled ‘‘Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Ap3 pointees’’. 

4 (4) The Administrator of General Services is di5 rected to provide the Committee on Oversight and 

6 Government Reform of the House of Representatives 

7 with any legal analysis supporting its March 23, 

8 2017, conclusion that Trump International Hotel in 

9 Washington may maintain its lease with the Federal 

10 Government, despite an express prohibition on elect11 ed officials taking part in the lease. 

12 (5) President Trump is directed to provide vis13 itor logs for both the White House and Mar-A-Lago 

14 to the Committee on Oversight and Government Re15 form of the House of Representatives on a rolling 

16 and ongoing basis, and directs the committee to hold 

17 ongoing votes on reporting the contents of such vis18 itor logs to the full House of Representatives. 

Æ 


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