Bell Bill Lets Lawmakers Block Federal Rules That Limit ‘Prosperity’

The text as introduced · 2,169 words

89R1228 TJB-F

By: Bell of Montgomery
H.B. No. 796

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the Texas Sovereignty Act.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. (a) This Act may be cited as the Texas

Sovereignty Act.

(b) The legislature finds that:

(1) The people of the several states forming the

United States of America created the federal government to be their

agent for certain enumerated powers delegated by the states and the

people to the federal government through the United States

Constitution.

(2) The Tenth Amendment to the United States

Constitution confirms the intent and understanding of the people of

the United States that all powers not delegated to the United States

by the Constitution, or prohibited by it to the states, are reserved

to the states respectively, or to the people.

(3) Each power delegated to the federal government by

the United States Constitution is constitutionally limited to that

power as it was understood and exercised at the time it was

delegated. An amendment to the Constitution as ratified by the

states is required to expand or limit a constitutionally delegated

power.

(4) The United States Constitution authorizes the

United States Congress to exercise only those specific powers

enumerated in Section 8, Article I, United States Constitution, and

those other powers as may be delegated to Congress through

amendments to the Constitution as ratified by the states.

(5) Article VI, United States Constitution, makes

supreme the Constitution and federal laws enacted pursuant to the

Constitution, further requiring that public officials at all levels

and in all branches of government support the Constitution.

(6) The power delegated to the United States Congress

to regulate commerce among the several states under Section 8,

Article I, United States Constitution, is limited to federal

regulation of actual commerce between the states and among foreign

nations. Regulation of intrastate commerce is reserved to the

states and to the people of the states. The Commerce Clause of the

Constitution constrains the legislative, executive, and judicial

branches of the federal government.

(7) The power delegated to the United States Congress

to make all necessary and proper federal laws under Section 8,

Article I, United States Constitution, allows Congress to enact

only those laws necessary and proper to execute the

constitutionally delegated powers vested in the federal

government, all other powers being reserved to the states and to the

people of the states.

(8) The power delegated to the United States Congress

to provide for the general welfare of the United States under

Section 8, Article I, United States Constitution, in the General

Welfare Clause constitutionally constrains Congress when

exercising a delegated power to act in a manner that serves the

states and the people of the states well and uniformly.

(9) Sections 1 and 2, Article I, Texas Constitution,

provide that this state and the people of this state retain the

sovereign power to regulate the affairs of Texas, subject only to

the United States Constitution.

(c) The federal government does not have the power to take

any legislative, executive, or judicial action that violates the

United States Constitution.

(d) The contract with the State of Texas has been willfully

violated by the federal government and must be constitutionally

restored.

(e) This Act calls on all officials in federal, state, and

local government, in all branches and at all levels, to honor their

oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the United States

Constitution and its ratified amendments against any federal action

that:

(1) would unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or

disregard the balance of powers between the sovereign states and

the federal government established by the United States

Constitution and its ratified amendments; or

(2) is outside the scope of the power delegated to the

federal government by the United States Constitution.

SECTION 2. Subtitle Z, Title 3, Government Code, is amended

by adding Chapter 394 to read as follows:

CHAPTER 394. ENFORCEMENT OF UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

Sec. 394.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:

(1) "Committee" means the Joint Legislative Committee

on Constitutional Enforcement.

(2) "Federal action" includes:

(A) a federal law;

(B) a federal agency rule, policy, or standard;

(C) an executive order of the president of the

United States;

(D) an order or decision of a federal court; and

(E) the making or enforcing of a treaty.

(3) "Unconstitutional federal action" means a federal

action enacted, adopted, or implemented without authority

specifically delegated to the federal government by the people and

the states through the United States Constitution.

Sec. 394.002. JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON

CONSTITUTIONAL ENFORCEMENT. (a) The Joint Legislative Committee

on Constitutional Enforcement is established as a permanent joint

committee of the legislature. The committee is established to

review federal actions that challenge the sovereignty of the state

and of the people for the purpose of determining if the federal

action is unconstitutional.

(b) The committee consists of the following 12 members:

(1) six members of the house of representatives

appointed by the speaker of the house; and

(2) six members of the senate appointed by the

lieutenant governor.

(c) Not more than four house members of the committee may be

members of the same political party. Not more than four senate

members of the committee may be members of the same political party.

(d) Members of the committee serve two-year terms beginning

with the convening of each regular legislative session.

(e) If a vacancy occurs on the committee, the appropriate

appointing officer shall appoint a member of the house or senate, as

appropriate, to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.

(f) The speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor

shall each designate one member of the committee as a joint chair of

the committee.

(g) The committee shall meet at the call of either joint

chair.

(h) A majority of the members of the committee constitute a

quorum.

Sec. 394.003. COMMITTEE REVIEW OF FEDERAL ACTION. (a) The

committee may review any federal action to determine whether the

action is an unconstitutional federal action.

(b) When reviewing a federal action, the committee shall

consider the plain reading and reasoning of the text of the United

States Constitution and the understood definitions at the time of

the framing and construction of the Constitution by our forefathers

before making a final declaration of constitutionality, as

demonstrated by:

(1) the ratifying debates in the several states;

(2) the understanding of the leading participants at

the constitutional convention;

(3) the understanding of the doctrine in question by

the constitutions of the several states in existence at the time the

United States Constitution was adopted;

(4) the understanding of the United States

Constitution by the first United States Congress;

(5) the opinions of the first chief justice of the

United States Supreme Court;

(6) the background understanding of the doctrine in

question under the English Constitution of the time; and

(7) the statements of support for natural law and

natural rights by the framers and the philosophers admired by the

framers.

(c) Not later than the 180th day after the date the

committee holds its first public hearing to review a specific

federal action, the committee shall vote to determine whether the

action is an unconstitutional federal action.

(d) The committee may determine that a federal action is an

unconstitutional federal action by majority vote.

Sec. 394.004. LEGISLATIVE DETERMINATION. (a) If the

committee determines that a federal action is an unconstitutional

federal action, the committee shall report the determination to the

house of representatives and to the senate during:

(1) the current session of the legislature if the

legislature is convened when the committee makes the determination;

or

(2) the next regular or special session of the

legislature if the legislature is not convened when the committee

makes the determination.

(b) Each house of the legislature shall vote on whether the

federal action is an unconstitutional federal action. If a

majority of the members of each house determine that the federal

action is an unconstitutional federal action, the determination

shall be sent to the governor for approval or disapproval as

provided by Section 14, Article IV, Texas Constitution, regarding

bills.

(c) A federal action is declared by the state to be an

unconstitutional federal action on the day:

(1) the governor approves the vote of the legislature

making the determination; or

(2) the determination would become law if presented to

the governor as a bill and not objected to by the governor.

(d) The secretary of state shall forward official copies of

the declaration to the president of the United States, to the

speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the

Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of

the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that the

declaration of unconstitutional federal action be entered in the

Congressional Record.

Sec. 394.005. OTHER DETERMINATIONS OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL

FEDERAL ACTS. (a) This chapter does not limit or alter the

authority of the governor, the attorney general, a statewide

elected official, a state or federal court, a judge or justice, a

state or local appointed or elected official, or the governing body

of a political subdivision of this state to issue a verbal or

written opinion determining a federal action to be

unconstitutional.

(b) An opinion issued under Subsection (a) may be referred

to the committee for review under this chapter.

Sec. 394.006. EFFECT OF DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL FEDERAL

ACTION. (a) A federal action declared to be an unconstitutional

federal action under Section 394.004 has no legal effect in this

state and may not be recognized by this state or a political

subdivision of this state as having legal effect.

(b) The state and a political subdivision of the state may

not spend public money or resources or incur public debt to

implement or enforce a federal action declared to be an

unconstitutional federal action.

(c) A person authorized to enforce the laws of this state

may enforce those laws, including Section 39.03, Penal Code,

against a person who attempts to implement or enforce a federal

action declared to be an unconstitutional federal action.

(d) This chapter does not prohibit a public officer who has

taken an oath to defend the United States Constitution from

interposing to stop acts of the federal government which, in the

officer's best understanding and judgment, violate the United

States Constitution.

(e) Texas officials in federal, state, and local government

shall honor their oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the United

States Constitution and shall act to constitutionally defend this

state and the people of this state.

Sec. 394.007. AUTHORITY OF ATTORNEY GENERAL. The attorney

general may defend the state to prevent the implementation and

enforcement of a federal action declared to be an unconstitutional

federal action.

SECTION 3. Chapter 37, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is

amended by adding Section 37.0056 to read as follows:

Sec. 37.0056. DECLARATIONS RELATING TO UNCONSTITUTIONAL

ACTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. (a) In this section, "federal

action" and "unconstitutional federal action" have the meanings

assigned by Section 394.001, Government Code.

(b) Any court in this state has original jurisdiction of a

proceeding seeking a declaratory judgment that a federal action

effective in this state is an unconstitutional federal action.

(c) A person is entitled to declaratory relief if the court

determines that a federal action is an unconstitutional federal

action.

(d) In determining whether to grant declaratory relief to a

person under this section, a court:

(1) may not rely solely on the decisions of other

courts interpreting the United States Constitution; and

(2) must rely on the plain meaning of the text of the

United States Constitution and any applicable constitutional

doctrine as understood by the framers of the constitution.

(e) Section 37.008 does not apply to relief sought under

this section.

SECTION 4. (a) Not later than the 30th day following the

effective date of this Act:

(1) the speaker of the house of representatives and

the lieutenant governor shall appoint the initial members of the

Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Enforcement

established under Section 394.002, Government Code, as added by

this Act; and

(2) the secretary of state shall forward official

copies of this Act to the president of the United States, to the

speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the

Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of

the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this Act be

officially entered in the Congressional Record.

(b) Not later than the 45th day following the effective date

of this Act, the speaker of the house of representatives and the

lieutenant governor shall forward official copies of this Act to

the presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states.

SECTION 5. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives

a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as

provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this

Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this

Act takes effect September 1, 2025.