HCR 104 (LSB 5192YH (2) 88)

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 104

BY  WILLS

A Concurrent Resolution affirming the sovereignty of the states under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

   WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”; and
   WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the United States Constitution and no more; and
   WHEREAS, the scope of federal power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and
   WHEREAS, state authority has been eroded primarily by four developments: (1) federal assumption of powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment; (2) interpretations of the “commerce clause” which go beyond any reasonable conception, and in effect authorize federal preemption with respect to any issue for which some faint or circuitous connection can be made to interstate commerce; (3) by threat of withholding, withdrawing, or diverting federal funds to coerce compliance with federal policies; (4) failure on the part of the states to challenge federal intrusions; and 
   WHEREAS, State governments have endorsed federal usurpation by seeking additional federal funding and by accepting federal delegations of power; and
   WHEREAS, today the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; and
   WHEREAS, numerous resolutions have been forwarded to the federal government without any response or result from Congress or the federal government; and
   WHEREAS, many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment; and
   WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and
   WHEREAS, a number of proposals from previous federal administrations and some now pending from the present federal administration and from Congress may further violate the United States Constitution; NOW THEREFORE,

   BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THE SENATE CONCURRING, That the State of Iowa hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution; and

   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers; and
   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the congressional delegation of the State of Iowa.