Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that President Trump must comply with the Foreign Emoluments Clause, by submitting all plans for his jumbo jet gift from Qatar immediately to Congress.

Bill: 119-hres-410
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Raskin, Jamie [D-MD-8]
Introduced: 2025-05-14
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Latest action: action_date: 2025-05-14
text: Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Summaries:

tv_txt: IV 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 410 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 14, 2025 Mr. Raskin (for himself, Mr. Nadler , Ms. Lofgren , Mr. Cohen , Mr. Johnson of Georgia , Mr. Swalwell , Mr. Lieu , Ms. Jayapal , Mr. Correa , Ms. Scanlon , Mr. Neguse , Mrs. McBath , Ms. Ross , Ms. Balint , Mr. García of Illinois , Ms. Kamlager-Dove , Mr. Moskowitz , Mr. Goldman of New York , and Ms. Crockett ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that President Trump must comply with the Foreign Emoluments Clause, by submitting all plans for his jumbo jet gift from Qatar immediately to Congress.

Whereas article I, section 9, clause 8 of the United States Constitution (known as the Foreign Emoluments Clause ) provides that [N]o Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State ; Whereas the framers of the Constitution were determined to presumptively ban the collection of emoluments from foreign governments of any kind whatever by our political leaders to guarantee their undivided fiduciary loyalty to the American people and to prevent them from being corrupted in their official decisionmaking by the wealth and plunder of foreign states and monarchs; Whereas the Constitution’s sole exception to this presumptive ban on accepting emoluments from foreign governments is in cases where Congress considers and affirmatively consents to the acceptance of such a gift; Whereas George Washington, in his 1796 farewell address to the Nation, warned that Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence...the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. ; Whereas, in 1830, President Andrew Jackson wrote a letter to Congress petitioning for the privilege of keeping a gold medal presented to him by then-Colombian President Simon Bolivar, but was forced to deposit the medal with the Department of State after Congress rejected his request; Whereas, in 1840, President Martin Van Buren, who was offered 2 horses, a case of rose oil, 5 bottles of rose water, a package of cashmere shawls, a Persian rug, a box of pearls, and a sword by the Imam of Muscat, sought Congressional guidance and carefully abided by the directive of Congress to deposit the gifts with the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury; Whereas, in 1844, President John Tyler obeyed the directive of Congress to sell 2 horses presented to the United States by the Imam of Muscat and deposit the proceeds with the Department of the Treasury; Whereas, in 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln presented to Congress 2 decorative elephant tusks, a sword, and a photograph from the King of Siam, requesting permission to accept these exotic gifts, but deposited them with the Department of the Interior when Congress rejected his request; Whereas, in 1877, President Ulysses S. Grant sought and received permission from Congress pursuant to a joint resolution to accept the Statue of Liberty on behalf of the United States as a gift from the government of France; Whereas, in 1896, Congress passed a joint resolution explicitly authorizing President Benjamin Harrison to accept medals presented to him by the governments of Brazil and Spain; Whereas President John F. Kennedy declined to accept honorary Irish citizenship in 1963, in order to avoid violating even the spirit of the Foreign Emoluments Clause; Whereas President Donald Trump, through the Department of Defense, intends to accept a Boeing 747–8 aircraft that has been described as a flying palace with an estimated value of at least $400,000,000 for temporary use as a Presidential transport aircraft during his term in office from the royal family of Qatar; Whereas ownership of this flying palace will reportedly transfer to President Trump’s personal Presidential library foundation no later than January 1, 2029; Whereas President Trump stated at a news conference on May 12, 2025, when asked about this reported offer by the royal family of Qatar to donate the aircraft, I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer...I could be a stupid person and say, no, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane ; Whereas acceptance of the Qatari aircraft without the permission of Congress would clearly violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause, while also posing significant national security dangers, including, not only in terms of the corruption and illegitimate influence that the framers anticipated, but also in terms of substantial additional risks of espionage against and surveillance of the President and other senior United States Government officials; and Whereas President Trump remarked that this unprecedented and extravagant gift from a foreign state would result in big savings [that] will be spent, instead, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! , but, in fact, it would not replace the existing contract for retrofitting and modernizing Air Force One, and would instead require hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in new Federal Government and taxpayer investment to retrofit and debug this gift from an autocratic foreign state: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that President Trump must comply with the Foreign Emoluments Clause by— (1) submitting all plans for this gift immediately to Congress; and (2) if he wishes to accept the flying palace from the royal family of Qatar as he says publicly he would like to do, obtaining the consent of Congress before doing so, as have all of his predecessors in the Presidency in comparable circumstances.