Haley Stevens: “the 10th amendment was a promise to the States and to the American people that the Federal Government would be limited…”

“the 10th amendment was a promise to the States and to the American people that the Federal Government would be limited, and that the people of the States could, for the most part, govern themselves as they saw fit. Unfortunately, in the last half century, that promise has been broken. The American people have asked us to start honoring that promise again: to return power to State and local governments which are closer to and more sensitive to the needs of the people. The 104th Congress and in particular, the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, started to shift power out of Washington by returning it to our States and to the American people. As chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, I wanted to continue its shift of power. More than a dozen colleagues and I introduced S. 1629 on March 20 of this year. Within 5 months of its introduction, the bill had 32 cosponsors. On May 8 of this year, a House companion bill was also introduced. I want to introduce a bill today which is the product of work by the Governmental Affairs Committee over the past several months.”