Title: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the House of Representatives should, consistent with long-standing practice and precedent, prior to proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into President Donald J. Trump, vote to open a formal impeachment inquiry and provide President Trump with fundamental constitutional protections.
Policy area: Congress

Summary:
This resolution urges the House of Representatives (1) before proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into President Trump, to vote to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry; (2) to provide President Trump with due process, including the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the accusations against him that would form any basis for impeachment; and (3) to provide members of the minority with the ability to participate fully in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas and other compulsory process.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 378 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 378

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the House of Representatives 
should, consistent with long-standing practice and precedent, prior to 
    proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into 
 President Donald J. Trump, vote to open a formal impeachment inquiry 
      and provide President Trump with fundamental constitutional 
                              protections.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 24, 2019

 Mr. Graham (for himself, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Thune, Mr. 
 Blunt, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Burr, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. 
  Wicker, Mr. Risch, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Paul, Mr. Lee, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
   Scott of South Carolina, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Cruz, Mrs. Capito, Mr. 
 Cassidy, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Daines, Mr. Perdue, Ms. Ernst, 
 Mr. Tillis, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Young, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mrs. 
Blackburn, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Moran, Mr. Hoeven, 
Mr. Rubio, Mr. Braun, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Sasse, Mr. 
    Toomey, Ms. McSally, and Mr. Sullivan) submitted the following 
     resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules and 
                             Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the House of Representatives 
should, consistent with long-standing practice and precedent, prior to 
    proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into 
 President Donald J. Trump, vote to open a formal impeachment inquiry 
      and provide President Trump with fundamental constitutional 
                              protections.

Whereas one of the cornerstones of the American Constitution is due process: the 
        right to confront your accuser, call witnesses on your behalf, and 
        challenge the accusations against you;
Whereas the House of Representatives is abandoning more than a century's worth 
        of precedent and tradition in impeachment proceedings and denying 
        President Trump basic fairness and due process accorded every American;
Whereas, in our nation's history, the House has on three occasions moved to 
        formally investigate whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach a 
        President, and in all three of these cases, the full House voted on a 
        resolution authorizing the House Judiciary Committee to determine 
        whether to impeach the President;
Whereas, in the case of President Trump, a formal impeachment process involving 
        debate and a vote by the full House prior to taking each step in the 
        process has been replaced by a press conference by the Speaker of the 
        House;
Whereas the proposition that the Speaker acting alone may direct committees to 
        initiate impeachment proceedings without any debate or a vote on the 
        House floor is unprecedented and undemocratic;
Whereas the House is denying President Trump due process within the ``inquiry'' 
        itself;
Whereas, for the impeachment investigations of President Richard M. Nixon and 
        President William J. Clinton, the House Judiciary Committee adopted 
        rules of procedure to provide due process rights and ensure fairness;
Whereas these rights included--

    (1) allowing the President to be represented by counsel;

    (2) permitting the President's counsel to be present at all hearings 
and depositions;

    (3) permitting the President's counsel to present evidence and object 
to the admission of evidence;

    (4) allowing the President's counsel to call and cross-examine 
witnesses; and

    (5) giving the President's counsel access to, and the ability to 
respond to, the evidence adduced by the Committee;

Whereas, by contrast, the House's current impeachment ``inquiry'' provides none 
        of these basic rights and protections to President Trump;
Whereas the main allegations against President Trump are based on assertions and 
        testimony from witnesses whom he is unable to confront, as part of a 
        process in which he is not able to offer witnesses in his defense or 
        have a basic understanding of the allegations lodged against him;
Whereas all witness interviews that have been conducted thus far in the House 
        have been behind closed doors with limited minority participation;
Whereas the House's current impeachment ``inquiry'' ignores the procedural 
        rights given to the investigating committee's minority in previous 
        Presidential impeachments, including granting equal subpoena power to 
        both the chair and ranking member of the committee;
Whereas, the House is denying President Trump the same basic pre-inquiry rights 
        afforded to President Clinton;
Whereas the Whitewater Investigation involved nearly five years of painstaking 
        investigative work by a special counsel and an independent counsel 
        before the House even voted to have the Judiciary Committee open an 
        impeachment inquiry;
Whereas President Clinton vigorously fought that investigation, including by 
        raising multiple privilege claims and he was permitted to fully litigate 
        those claims through the courts;
Whereas President Trump, by contrast, fully cooperated with Special Counsel 
        Robert S. Mueller's investigation;
Whereas, during the course of the Mueller investigation, President Trump never 
        raised privilege claims, he turned over more than one million pages of 
        documents, he directed senior aides to testify freely, including making 
        the White House Counsel available to testify for more than thirty hours, 
        and he agreed to answer written questions on penalty of perjury; and
Whereas, rather than giving President Trump the same due process rights that 
        President Clinton had to raise and litigate claims of constitutional 
        privilege, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has 
        repeatedly threatened to use President Trump's assertion of his 
        constitutional rights as evidence of obstruction and to impeach 
        President Trump for trying to litigate those claims: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) calls on the House of Representatives, prior to 
        proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into 
        President Trump, to vote to initiate a formal impeachment 
        inquiry;
            (2) calls on the House of Representatives to provide 
        President Trump, like every other American, with due process, 
        to include the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses 
        on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the 
        accusations against him that would form any basis for 
        impeachment; and
            (3) calls on the House of Representatives to provide 
        members of the minority with the ability to participate fully 
        in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas 
        and other compulsory process.
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