IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 53 

Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 16, 2019 

Mr. RUSH submitted the following resolution 

JANUARY 16, 2019 

By motion of the House, referred to the Committee on Ethics 

RESOLUTION 

Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 

Whereas the United States has always been a proud multicultural Nation; 

Whereas since early in our history our Nation has recognized 

the strength that our diversity brings by making our national motto E Pluribus Unum; 

Whereas on July 13, 2006, on the floor of the House of Representatives, comparing immigrants to livestock, Representative Steve King of Iowa stated, ‘‘We could also 

electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not 

kill somebody, but it would simply be a discouragement 

for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with 

livestock all the time.’’; 


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•HRES 53 IH 

Whereas on March 8, 2008, in an interview with KICD Studios, Representative King stated, ‘‘I don’t want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their 

name—whatever their religion their father might have 

been . . . I’ll just say this: When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States—I mean, what does this look 

like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to 

the world of Islam?’’; 

Whereas on May 21, 2012, while speaking with constituents 

in Pocahontas, Iowa, Representative King compared vetting immigrants to choosing hunting dogs saying, ‘‘You 

want a good bird dog? You want one that’s going to be 

aggressive? Pick the one that’s the friskiest.’’; 

Whereas in July 2012, at a tele-townhall, on President 

Barack Obama’s place of birth, Representative King stated, ‘‘It would have been awfully hard to fraudulently file 

the birth notice of Barack Obama being born in Hawaii 

and get that into our public libraries and that microfiche 

they keep of all the newspapers published. That doesn’t 

mean there aren’t some other explanations on how they 

might’ve announced that by telegram from Kenya. The 

list goes on. But drilling into that now, even if we could 

get a definitive answer and even if it turned out that 

Barack Obama was conclusively not born in America, I 

don’t think we could get that case sold between now and 

November.’’; 

Whereas on January 4, 2013, in a press release announcing 

the introduction of his bill, H.R. 140, Representative 

King stated, ‘‘The current practice of extending U.S. citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ‘anchor babies’ must 

end because it creates a magnet for illegal immigration 


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into our country. Now is the time to ensure that the laws 

in this country do not encourage law breaking.’’; 

Whereas on July 24, 2014, in an interview with Newsmax 

discussing undocumented immigrants in the United 

States, Representative King stated, ‘‘For everyone who’s 

a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 

130 pounds—and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana 

across the desert.’’; 

Whereas on July 20, 2016, in an interview with The Washington Post, Representative King stated, ‘‘The idea of 

multiculturalism, that every culture is equal—that’s not 

objectively true.’’; 

Whereas on July 18, 2016, in an appearance on MSNBC, 

Representative King stated, ‘‘Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization [than 

White people]?’’; 

Whereas on September 18, 2016, on Twitter, Representative 

King stated, that ‘‘Cultural suicide by demographic 

transformation must end.’’; 

Whereas on March 12, 2017, on Twitter, Representative 

King shared a story about far-right Dutch politician 

Geert Wilders and added, ‘‘We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.’’; 

Whereas on March 13, 2017, on CNN, Representative King 

stated, ‘‘I’d like to see an America that’s just so homogenous that we look a lot the same’’ and ‘‘There’s been this 

effort, we’re going to have to replace that void with somebody else’s babies. That’s the push to bring in [so] much 

illegal immigration into America, living in enclaves, refusVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Jan 17, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR53.IH HR53

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ing to assimilate into the American culture and civilization.’’; 

Whereas on June 12, 2018, Representative King retweeted 

Mark Collett, a self-described ‘‘Nazi sympathizer’’; 

Whereas on September 2, 2018, in an interview with 

Unzensuriert, a publication linked to a fascist Austrian 

political party, Representative King stated, ‘‘What does 

this diversity bring that we don’t already have? Mexican 

food, Chinese food, those things—well, that’s fine. But 

what does it bring that we don’t have that is worth the 

price? We have a lot of diversity within the U.S. already.’’; 

Whereas on January 10, 2019, in the New York Times, Representative King stated ‘‘White nationalist, White supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language 

become offensive?’’; 

Whereas Representative King’s statements have drawn praise 

from known White supremacists like former Ku Klux 

Klan leader David Duke; 

Whereas Representative King dishonors not only immigrants 

but every American with his racist and xenophobic rhetoric; and 

Whereas Representative King has failed to retract his statement and apologize to the Members of the House or 

Americans across the country: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That— 

2 (1) Representative Steve King of Iowa, by his 

3 despicable conduct, has dishonored himself and 

4 brought discredit to the House and merits the cen5 sure of the House for the same; 


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1 (2) Representative Steve King of Iowa be cen2 sured; 

3 (3) Representative Steve King of Iowa forth4 with present himself in the well of the House of 

5 Representatives for the pronouncement of censure; 

6 and 

7 (4) Representative Steve King of Iowa be cen8 sured with the public reading of this resolution by 

9 the Speaker. 

Æ 


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