[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1028 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1028
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United
States must act urgently to end the political and economic dominance of
billionaire oligarchs, halt the corporate subsidies and tax advantages
that fortify their power, and reinvest in the needs of the American
people to defend democracy from authoritarianism.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 30, 2026
Ms. Tlaib (for herself, Ms. Jayapal, Mrs. Ramirez, and Ms. Lee of
Pennsylvania) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on
House Administration, Ways and Means, Education and Workforce, Energy
and Commerce, Financial Services, and Agriculture, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United
States must act urgently to end the political and economic dominance of
billionaire oligarchs, halt the corporate subsidies and tax advantages
that fortify their power, and reinvest in the needs of the American
people to defend democracy from authoritarianism.
Whereas the United States was created to be a democracy, founded on the
principle that all people are created equal, governed not by kings or
corporate masters but by themselves as free citizens;
Whereas the people of the United States understand that the gravest threat to
democracy and individual freedoms is the alliance of private wealth and
authoritarian government;
Whereas the people of the United States have sounded the alarm and struggled to
prevent democracy from being ruled by oligarchs over the course of the
250 years since the founding of the United States;
Whereas, through United States history, the Federal Government has vigorously
combated excessive concentrations of power and wealth by breaking up
monopolies, rooting out government corruption and cronyism, taxing high
incomes and large estates, and enacting rules to prevent the powerful
from exploiting workers and the environment;
Whereas, over the past 50 years, the Federal Government has forfeited its role
safeguarding democracy by allowing the wealthy to amass outsized
economic and political power leading to skyrocketing income and wealth
inequality;
Whereas today, with the combined wealth of America's 900 billionaires now
exceeding that of the 67,000,000 households in the poorest 50 percent,
wages for working people have stagnated and basic needs, including
housing and health care, have become unaffordable;
Whereas President Donald Trump and ultrawealthy oligarchs and corporations are
corrupting United States politics through billions in open and hidden
campaign contributions and by exploiting their monopoly control in key
sectors of the economy, and especially over media, information, and
emerging digital technologies;
Whereas President Trump has permitted pay-to-play schemes to become endemic, as
oligarchs leverage political contributions to win hundreds of billions
in taxpayer-funded Federal subsidies, tax breaks, regulatory rollbacks,
and government contracts despite exploiting workers and polluting
communities;
Whereas the oil and gas industry spent over $400,000,000 on lobbying, campaign
contributions, and media buys in the 2024 election cycle and in return
has received at least $144,000,000,000 in tax breaks, the end of Federal
support for renewables, and a green light to complete the destruction of
the climate;
Whereas Big Tech spent almost $400,000,000 in support of President Trump, who in
return is recklessly promoting unrestricted development of artificial
intelligence, which has enriched tech owners and investors by trillions
of dollars, while jeopardizing jobs, the environment, and public health;
Whereas the crypto industry leveraged more than $274,000,000 in corporate
contributions during the 2024 electoral cycle to win industry-friendly
legislation, regulatory rollbacks, political pardons, and dropped
charges, facilitating new channels for corruption via meme coins and
stablecoins, which President Trump has already utilized to increase his
family's net worth by billions of dollars;
Whereas President Trump is wielding autocratic power to enrich his oligarchic
backers and accelerate the transfer of wealth to corporations and
billionaires, including by enacting massive tax cuts for the rich while
slashing benefits for the poor;
Whereas the quid pro quo between President Trump and the oligarchs corrupts the
Federal Government, erodes democracy, undermines citizen freedom by
deepening economic inequality, and blocks popular action on urgent
crises such as climate change, affordable health care, and workers'
rights;
Whereas public funds belong to the people of the United States and should be
invested in education, health care, housing, clean energy, and
infrastructure, not used to enrich the wealthiest individuals and most
powerful corporations;
Whereas the Supreme Court is complicit in deconstructing American democracy by
interpreting money as speech, and misusing the Constitution as an
instrument for entrenching oligarchic power over the government, the
economy, and working people;
Whereas the labor movement has played a significant historical role in
counteracting corporate power, reducing inequality, and ensuring the
political system is responsive to the interests of ordinary Americans,
not just wealthy elites;
Whereas the long-term decline in the percentage of workers who are union members
has diminished the ability of the labor movement to play this crucial
role;
Whereas control of economic resources grants political power, from command over
the workplace or investment decisions, to the ability to set the
political agenda and influence public policy;
Whereas concentrated economic power is inconsistent with the core democratic
value of political equality;
Whereas a truly democratic society requires a democratic economy, where power
derived from ownership and control over economic resources is widely
distributed and democratically accountable; and
Whereas the people of the United States demand bold action to end oligarchic
power and achieve real democracy: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) the Federal Government must act to defund the oligarchs
in order to defend American democracy and safeguard individual
liberties;
(2) the President must not reward oligarchs and
billionaire-controlled corporations with lucrative, publicly
funded contracts, loans, and grants if they--
(A) engage in corrupt political quid pro quo
schemes;
(B) fail to fairly compete in open markets; and
(C) break Federal labor, environmental, and
nondiscrimination laws;
(3) the President and Congress must act with all deliberate
speed to protect election integrity by stopping billionaire and
corporate spending from drowning out the voices and votes of
working people, and ensuring all elections are publicly
financed with small dollar contributions;
(4) the President and Congress must break up all
concentrations of economic and political power, especially
monopolies in traditional and new media, finance, and tech
sectors, and act to ensure critical national security functions
including cloud computing, surveillance, artificial
intelligence, and space exploration are controlled by public
servants, not oligarchs;
(5) the President and Congress must drastically reduce
levels of economic inequality and concentrations of inherited
wealth by increasing tax rates for corporations and the
ultrarich, enacting a wealth tax, and closing legal loopholes
the wealthy use to evade paying their fair share, and that
revenues from such measures should be directed toward universal
health care, affordable housing, debt-free education, and
climate resilience;
(6) the President and Congress must reform the Supreme
Court to ensure that a majority of Justices recognize the
Constitution as enabling Congress to take the urgent actions
necessary to save democracy from corporate control, not as a
bill of rights for oligarchs;
(7) the President and Congress must support the dramatic
expansion of unions in order to curtail corporate power, ensure
ordinary Americans benefit from economic growth, and provide an
institutional basis for working people to make collective
demands on the political system, countering elite dominance;
(8) the President and Congress must explore ways to promote
alternative, noncorporate forms of ownership, such as
cooperative, nonprofit, multistakeholder, and public or
community ownership, which can displace corporate power and
form the building blocks of a democratic economy; and
(9) the President and Congress must use public money to
fund programs that raise the standard of living by providing
affordable health care, housing, food, and education, so that
the people of the United States have what they need to survive
and thrive.
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