Political Quotes

“I am wondering if I could engage the managers in some colloquy and dialog as to how this bill will function in the real world. There are some real problems in terms of the process. This bill is different from last year's bill. First, I want to make sure that our colleagues are aware of the fact that this is not Senate bill No. 993. There is a new point of order which is incorporated in this bill which is going to have some very serious ramifications in the way we function around here. I am somebody who voted for last year's bill. I would like to vote for this year's bill. I came out of local office. I was in local government for 8 years. I understand the impact of unfunded mandates. I believe we have to do more than what we have done and that last year's bill was about the right balance to accomplish a greater awareness on our part to create a point of order in order to ensure that we would have an estimate before us. But this year's bill goes significantly beyond that. And that point of order in this year's bill is frequently an impossibility. We are building into the structure here something which, at times, cannot be accomplished. The Congressional Budget Office has told us that. They have written to us that it is impossible, or nearly impossible, to make estimates as to the cost of mandates 5 or 10 years down the road on State and local government.”