IV 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 425 
Expressing disapproval of the failure to satisfy the constitutional duty to 
‘‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’’ and the usurpation 
of the legislative authority of Congress by the President of the United 
States. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 20, 2013 
Mr. DESANTIS (for himself, Mr. SALMON, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mrs. BLACK-
BURN, Mr. MULVANEY, Mr. GARRETT, Mr. LAMALFA, Mr. FLEMING, Mr. 
KING of Iowa, Mr. STUTZMAN, Mr. BRIDENSTINE, Mr. YOHO, Mr. 
MCCLINTOCK, and Mr. WILSON of South Carolina) submitted the fol-
lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing disapproval of the failure to satisfy the constitu-
tional duty to ‘‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully 
executed’’ and the usurpation of the legislative authority 
of Congress by the President of the United States. 
Whereas Article I of the United States Constitution vests 
Congress with all legislative powers; 
Whereas Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitu-
tion imposes a duty on the President to ‘‘take Care that 
the Laws be faithfully executed’’; 
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•HRES 425 IH 
Whereas the Constitution does not delegate authority to the 
President to rewrite, amend, or delay duly-enacted, con-
stitutional laws; 
Whereas the ‘‘take care’’ duty has roots in Anglo-American 
law dating back to the Glorious Revolution of 17th cen-
tury Britain, to wit, the English Bill of Rights of 1689 
provided that ‘‘the pretended power of suspending laws, 
or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without the 
consent of parliament, is illegal’’; 
Whereas President George Washington explained the Con-
stitution’s Take Care Clause as follows: ‘‘It is my duty 
to see the Laws executed: to permit them to be trampled 
with impunity would be repugnant to’’ that duty; 
Whereas Thomas Jefferson observed that ‘‘if the equilibrium 
of the three great bodies, Legislative, Executive and Ju-
diciary, could be preserved, if the Legislature could be 
kept independent,’’ he would ‘‘never fear the result of 
such a government’’, but that ‘‘he could not but be un-
easy when I saw that the Executive had swallowed up the 
Legislative branch’’; 
Whereas Alexander Hamilton explained in The Federalist No. 
69 that, under the Constitution, the President ‘‘can pre-
scribe no rules concerning the commerce or currency of 
the nation’’; 
Whereas James Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 47 that 
the ‘‘accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and 
judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or 
many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, 
may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny’’; 
Whereas the text of the Patient Protection and Affordable 
Care Act requires that the Shared Responsibility for Em-
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•HRES 425 IH 
ployers Regarding Health Coverage provision, commonly 
known as the employer mandate, ‘‘shall apply to months 
beginning after December 31, 2013’’; 
Whereas, on July 2, 2013, the executive branch announced 
that the President unilaterally rewrote the employer man-
date provision to apply to the months applying after De-
cember 31, 2014; 
Whereas, on July 17, 2013, the House of Representatives 
passed a bill to delay the employer mandate by statute; 
Whereas the President threatened to veto the lawful change 
proposed by the House even though it was precisely the 
statutory change he instituted by executive fiat; 
Whereas the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ren-
ders insurance policies that fail to contain what the gov-
ernment defines as ‘‘essential minimum benefits’’ to be il-
legal; 
Whereas millions of Americans are losing their individual 
health insurance policies because such policies do not 
qualify for grandfather status under the statute; 
Whereas, on November 14, 2013, the President announced 
that he would ‘‘extend’’ the statute’s grandfather clause 
to include plans not protected under the statute; 
Whereas, on November 15, 2013, the House of Representa-
tives passed a bill to overrule the provisions of the Pa-
tient Protection and Affordable Care Act that are caus-
ing mass cancellations of insurance policies; and 
Whereas, on November 15, 2013, the President threatened to 
veto the lawful statutory change proposed by the House 
of Representatives: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
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•HRES 425 IH 
(1) disapproves of the President’s failure to 
‘‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’’ as 
required by the Constitution; 
(2) disapproves of the President’s usurpation of 
the legislative power of Congress through the rewrit-
ing of key provisions of the Patient Protection and 
Affordable Care Act; and 
(3) reaffirms that the preservation of the Con-
stitution’s separation of powers is essential for the 
protection of individual liberty and the maintenance 
of the rule of law. 
Æ 
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