Obama Citizenship

Congressman Introduces Eligibility Bill

By Phil

With special thanks to Citizen Wells, WorldNetDaily is reporting that Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) yesterday introduced HR1503:

A freshman representative has introduced a bill to the U.S. Congress that would require presidential candidates to provide a birth certificate and other documents  to prove their eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.

Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., filed H.R. 1503, an amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which increased required campaign fund disclosure and was later amended to establish the Federal Elections Commission.

According to the Library of Congress’ bill-tracking website, H.R. 1503 would “require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of president to include with the committee’s statement of organization a copy of the candidate’s birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution.”

The full text of the bill is not yet available, as Posey introduced it only yesterday and the Government Printing Office typically takes a day or two to transfer the information to the bill-tracking site.

WND and other news organizations have contacted Posey’s office for comment, but no explanation or detail on the bill has been provided.

H.R. 1503 has been referred to the House Committee on House Administration.

Posey’s bill, if enacted, would help clarify in future elections issues that have swirled around Barack Obama, whose qualifications to serve as president have been clouded by release of the candidate’s Certificate of Live Birth instead of an official birth certificate.

Update: The Politico reports further on the issue:

A spokesman for Florida Republican Congressman Bill Posey sends over a statement from the congressman explaining his bill to require that presidential candidates submit birth certificates is aimed at dousing the controversy ? though he said the congressman himself thinks Obama could do more to put the issue to rest.

Says Posey:

Opponents of President Bush used the 2000 election results and the court decisions to question the legitimacy of President Bush to serve as President. Opponents of President Obama are raising the birth certificate issue as a means of questioning his eligibility to serve as President. Neither of these situations are healthy for our Republic. This bill, by simply requiring such documentation for future candidates for President will remove this issue as a reason for questioning the legitimacy of a candidate elected as President.

Posey’s spokesman, George Cecala, seemed to reference that line of reasoning when asked whether Posey believes Obama is in fact eligible to be president.

“I think he?s willing to take the president?s word for it,” Cecala said. “If the president wanted to put an end to the whole thing, he could order Hawaii to release the authentic birth certificate. That?s up to him.”

The Politico has an “introduced” form of the bill here.

In my view, this is a huge first step towards the ultimate goal of eligibility enforcement — requiring all candidates who seek the office of the presidency to fulfill all aspects of Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution.

While the likelihood of something getting past the current Congress is probably low, it is also a good thing that certain States are considering similar types of initiatives:

• Montana (tabled)
• Oklahoma
• Arizona
• Missouri
• Texas

A current listing of eligibility lawsuits can be found here.

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on March 14, 2009 (boomark / email).