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[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 25 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 25

      Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the Obama 
 administration's discontinuing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 3, 2011

Mrs. Hartzler submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 
      Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the Obama 
 administration's discontinuing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.

Whereas on February 23, 2011, President Barack Obama ordered the Justice 
        Department to drop its defense of a central part of the 1996 law that 
        bars the Federal Government from recognizing same-sex unions, the 
        Defense of Marriage Act, and both President Obama and Attorney General 
        Eric Holder concluded the law is unconstitutional;
Whereas President Obama himself has said that marriage is something sanctified 
        between a man and a woman;
Whereas passed by significant majorities in both chambers of Congress and signed 
        into law by President Bill Clinton, the Defense of Marriage Act has 
        never been overturned in any Federal lawsuit challenging its 
        constitutionality by a Federal Court, yet the Department of Justice has 
        decided not to defend this act in Federal court;
Whereas on the contrary, the Department of Justice is vigorously defending in 
        numerous Federal courts across the country President Obama's signature 
        health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
        (Public Law 111-148), and the related Health Care and Education 
        Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-152), after these bills 
        barely passed both chambers of Congress on party line votes, and whose 
        critical Individual Mandate provision has been declared unconstitutional 
        by, separate Federal district courts in the cases of Florida v. 
        Department of Health and Human Services, Case No.: 3:10-cv-91-RV/EMT 
        (N.D. Fla., Jan. 31, 2011), and Virginia ex rel. Cuccinelli v. Sebelius, 
        No. 3:10cv188-HEH (E.D. Va., filed Dec. 13, 2010); and
Whereas the vast majority of Americans believe that marriage should continue to 
        be what it always has been--the legal and spiritual union between one 
        man and one woman: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That the Congress--
            (1) condemns the Obama administration's direction that the 
        Department of Justice should discontinue defending the Defense 
        of Marriage Act; and
            (2) demands that the Department of Justice continue to 
        defend the Defense of Marriage Act in all instances.
                                 <all>
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