Bill Clinton: “Mayor, first of all, let me say a word of greeting to Secretary Brown; I see him sitting next to you. I understand five…”

“Mayor, first of all, let me say a word of greeting to Secretary Brown; I see him sitting next to you. I understand five of my Cabinet Secretaries have been there, and I can't find anybody on the phone here in Washington. I hope nothing bad happens while the mayors conference is going on. I wanted to say just a word about that. As you know, that's a matter that's been debated for years among the mayors, the Governors, and the Congress. We are in the process right now, through the Vice President's task force on reinventing government, of reexamining the way the Federal Government relates to the cities and the States. And if I might make a specific suggestion, I think it would be very helpful if you, or Mayor Abramson, if that's the appropriate person to do it, would designate a group of mayors to make a very specific proposal to our task force because--and obviously, we'll have to invite people who might disagree to do the same thing--but I think it's very important that we examine this because one of the things that I'm concerned about is the colossal amount of money we waste every year trying to micromanage these grants, trying to have extra layers of regulation. And I think that a lot of these things need to be reexamined. So I think the proper forum for us to do that in is this one. And it's on a very fast track because the report is due in September, so it's not anything we're going to dillydally around about. And I would like you to make a proposal to our commission. [Mayor Paul Helmke of Fort Wayne, IN, requested the President's support for legislation to prevent unfunded Federal mandates.]”