Title: Raising a question of the privileges of the House.
Policy area: Congress

Summary:
This resolution (1) declares that Representative Steve King of Iowa, by certain conduct, has dishonored himself and brought discredit to the House; and (2) censures Representative King.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 53 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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.'';
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 
        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, refusing 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
    Resolved, That--
            (1) Representative Steve King of Iowa, by his despicable 
        conduct, has dishonored himself and brought discredit to the 
        House and merits the censure of the House for the same;
            (2) Representative Steve King of Iowa be censured;
            (3) Representative Steve King of Iowa forthwith present 
        himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the 
        pronouncement of censure; and
            (4) Representative Steve King of Iowa be censured with the 
        public reading of this resolution by the Speaker.
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