Palmer Against Resolution Calling on Vice President Pence to Invoke 25th Amendment
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Elizabeth Hance (202)-225-4921
Palmer Against Resolution Calling on Vice President Pence to Invoke 25th Amendment
Washington, D.C. – Today, the House of Representatives plans to vote on H.Res. 21, a resolution that calls on Vice President Pence to mobilize the appropriate officers of the Cabinet to declare President Trump unfit for office by invocation of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) released the following statement:
"It is the Vice President, not Congress, upon whom the Constitution bestows the powers of the 25th Amendment," Palmer said. "Congress cannot usurp powers granted the executive branch with a House resolution. The Constitution states that, for a President to be removed by mobilization of the 25th Amendment, ‘the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide' must ‘transmit their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.' To date, Vice President Pence and the necessary executive officials have provided no such written declaration, and there are no other governing bodies to whom the law currently gives authority to declare a President unfit. Therefore, H.Res. 21 does not have a legal path forward. A vote on this resolution, and the planned subsequent vote on an article of impeachment against the President, serve no purpose but to further incense and divide Americans against each other at an already heated moment. Frustration and anger are running high, and these votes simply exacerbate this emotionally tense time. We can move forward as a country only if we lay aside partisanship and seek healing together, which these votes will not accomplish."
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