Political Quotes

“many Democrats favor the concept of treading carefully in placing additional responsibilities on States and localities without providing full funding. In fact, in the 103d Congress, the Committee on Government Operations reported a bill on unfunded mandates by a vote of 35 to 4. It was developed in a bipartisan fashion with the support of both the chairman and ranking member of that committee, and every major organization representing State and local government. The process by which the bill was considered in this Congress was the antithesis of last year's efforts. There were no public hearings on the bill. The bill was drafted in secret with no consultation with the minority. It was introduced on Wednesday, January 4, and available in print on Friday, January 6. The markup was held 4 days later. The haste in which this bill was considered left a number of substantive issues unaddressed, which even the authors conceded at markup that they would like to address on the floor. The minority views contained in the report on H.R. 5 detail the procedural faults that took place during the markup, and I encourage all Members to read these views before the bill is on the floor later this week. Before detailing the substantive issues raised at the markup, we want to establish a few points about unfunded mandates. First, we are keenly sensitive to the issue of unfunded mandates.…”