Rep. Pramila Jayapal

This concurrent resolution expresses opposition to the application of criminal laws to pregnancy outcomes and affirms that people deserve access to high-quality health care without fear of reprisal or punishment.

This concurrent resolution supports the goals and ideals of the International Transgender Day of Visibility. It celebrates the accomplishments and leadership of transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and gender-diverse people.

This concurrent resolution expresses the sense of Congress for ensuring the speediest end of the COVID-19 pandemic the United States and European governments should unite to enact a World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver, require technology transfer, and otherwise facilitate access in low- and middle-income countries to high-quality COVID-19 mRNA vaccines; and vital U.S. partners, with shared values who also prioritize global cooperation and saving lives and livelihoods worldwide, should unite to remove all obstacles to global access to COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, treatments, oxygen, and other medical products to advance the common goal of quickly ending the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution states that the U.S. government has an obligation to the American people, whose taxpayer funds helped to develop lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that doses are ultimately delivered to those most in need around the world so as to ensure the global COVID-19 vaccination necessary to end the pandemic.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment related to the fundamental right to vote. Specifically, it grants every U.S. citizen of legal voting age the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment to prohibit the Constitution from being construed to forbid Congress or the states from (1) imposing reasonable viewpoint-neutral limitations on private campaign contributions or independent election expenditures; or (2) enacting systems of public campaign financing, including those designed to restrict the influence of private wealth by offsetting campaign spending or independent expenditures with increased public funding.

Maddy summaryHJRES 53 proposes a constitutional amendment to ban slavery and involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment. Currently, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution permits such punishments for crimes, creating a legal loophole. If ratified by 3/4 of state legislatures, this amendment would eliminate that exception nationwide, making it unconstitutional to impose forced labor or slavery as part of criminal sentences. The change would directly affect all states' criminal justice systems, particularly prison labor practices, by prohibiting these punishments for any offense.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment providing that the rights protected by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, shall have no rights under the Constitution and are subject to regulation. The amendment requires federal, state, and local government to (1) regulate, limit, or prohibit election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures; and (2) require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary is prohibited from construing the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment, and the amendment shall not be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

This resolution expresses support for the designation of National Voting Rights Month, encourages people to uphold the right to vote, encourages Congress to pass certain voting rights legislation, encourages the development of strategies to educate students about voting, encourages the U.S. Postal Service to issue a special Representative John R. Lewis stamp during the month of September, and invites Congress to allocate funds for public service announcements regarding elections.

This resolution expresses the sense that the federal government should adopt a global health solidarity strategy to end medically avertable deaths and respond to the full burden of disease in poor countries; the federal government should use laws and diplomatic influence to stop ongoing economic harms to the global South; and it is the duty of the federal government to issue reparations, including for slavery and colonialism.

This resolution condemns the Supreme Court's holding in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (that there is no constitutional right to abortion) and expresses a commitment to instituting judicial reform and supporting access to abortion and the communities affected by the Court's ruling. It also urges the executive branch to advance reproductive justice.