•HRES 411 IH 
fice: ‘‘The Constitution vests the power of declaring war 
with Congress; therefore, no offensive expedition of im-
portance can be undertaken until after they have delib-
erated on the subject and authorized such a measure.’’; 
Whereas Presidential wars saddle the people with multitrillion 
dollar indebtedness, diverts national genius from produc-
tion to destruction, cripples liberty, silences the law, 
awakens enemies, and provokes blowback in the United 
States; 
Whereas the absence of impeachment standards creates an 
appearance that impeachment is a partisan exercise, 
which undermines its legitimacy and deters its use; 
Whereas the absence of definitions of war and cobelligerency 
for purposes of the Declare War Clause undermines its 
enforcement through the impeachment process or other-
wise; 
Whereas the law should warn before it strikes; 
Whereas article I, section 2, clause 5 provides that, ‘‘The 
House of Representatives . . . shall have the sole Power 
of Impeachment’’; 
Whereas the impeachment power of the House of Representa-
tives is a cornerstone safeguard against Presidential tyr-
anny; 
Whereas the past neglect of the House of Representatives to 
use 
the 
impeachment 
power 
against 
Presidential 
usurpations and lawlessness has concentrated alarming 
power in the executive branch, crippled liberty, under-
mined transparency, and encouraged Presidents to fur-
ther aggrandizements; 
Whereas article II, section 4 of the Constitution provides 
that, ‘‘The President, Vice President and all civil Officers 
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•HRES 411 IH 
of the United States, shall be removed from Office on 
Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or 
other high Crimes and Misdemeanors’’; 
Whereas the Constitutional Convention rejected ‘‘neglect of 
duty’’ or ‘‘maladministration’’ as impeachment standards 
in favor of ‘‘high crimes and misdemeanors’’ because the 
former terms were too broad; 
Whereas impeachable ‘‘high crimes and misdemeanors’’ has 
an objective meaning based on the intent of the Constitu-
tion’s Framers and British impeachment precedents; 
Whereas Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 65 explained that 
impeachable offenses ‘‘proceed from the misconduct of 
public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or viola-
tion of some public trust. They are of a nature which 
may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLIT-
ICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately 
to the society itself’’; 
Whereas the House of Representatives has voted Articles of 
Impeachment against two Presidents, one Cabinet officer, 
one Senator, one Supreme Court Justice, and 14 Federal 
judges without providing a general standard for defining 
an impeachable offense; and 
Whereas every participant in the drafting, debating, and rati-
fying of the Constitution understood that the Declare 
War Clause prohibited Presidential wars and entrusted 
exclusively to Congress the solemn responsibility for de-
ciding whether the Nation should cross the Rubicon from 
a state of peace to a state of war: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, 
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•HRES 411 IH 
SECTION 1. DEFINING PRESIDENTIAL WARS AS IMPEACH-
ABLE OFFENSES. 
That the House of Representatives declares the fol-
lowing Presidential actions shall constitute impeachable 
‘‘high crimes and misdemeanors’’ within the meaning of 
article II, section 4, which will cause the House to vote 
an Article or Articles of Impeachment to send to the Sen-
ate for trial: ‘‘Initiating wars against state or nonstate ac-
tors without prior congressional declarations under article 
I, section 8, clause 11 (Declare War Clause) by which 
Congress itself decides to take the United States from a 
condition of peace to a condition of war against an identi-
fied enemy.’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINING PRESIDENTIAL WARS. 
Nothing in this resolution shall be interpreted to pro-
hibit the President from responding with proportionate 
military force in the exercise of national self-defense to 
actual or imminent aggression or a declaration of war 
against the United States. 
SEC. 3. COBELLIGERNCY. 
This resolution shall be interpreted to prohibit the 
President from making the United States a cobelligerent 
in an ongoing war without a congressional declaration 
under the Declare War Clause. For purposes of this sec-
tion, the United States becomes a cobelligerent if it sys-
tematically or substantially supplies war materials, mili-
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•HRES 411 IH 
tary troops, trainers, or advisers, military intelligence, fi-
nancial support or their equivalent in association, coopera-
tion, assistance, or common cause with another bellig-
erent. 
SEC. 4. NONEXCLUSIVITY. 
This resolution shall not be interpreted to preclude 
the House of Representatives from concluding that other 
Presidential actions constitute impeachable ‘‘high crimes 
and misdemeanors’’ within the meaning of article II, sec-
tion 4, either by supplemental resolutions or by ad hoc 
determinations. 
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
This resolution shall take effect upon passage by the 
House of Representatives. 
Æ 
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