John Conyers: “I would like to join in the point that is being made by the gentlewoman from Texas to remind all of our friends that…”

“I would like to join in the point that is being made by the gentlewoman from Texas to remind all of our friends that when Republicans took power in 1994, they made a solemn promise to the States that they would make sure that there would be no imposition of unfunded mandates on those States, and today we have a chance to redeem that promise by voting ``no'' on consideration of this rule, which waives the unfunded mandate requirement. The majority may, if they have not already, attempt to argue that it is a minor mandate and show new and improved CBO estimates showing that the cost of this bill is only $125 million over the next 5 years; and, therefore, I think this warrants at minimum committee hearings in markups that has so far been denied this Congress. So we are not asking a lot this afternoon. And I am impressed by the Governors Association. Their letter points out that while they commend the gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Sensenbrenner) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) for their commitment to driver's license integrity, they find that those bills would impose technological standards and verification procedures on States, many of which are beyond the current capacity of even the Federal Government. Moreover, the cost of implementing such standards and verification procedures for the 220 million driver's licenses issued by the States represents a massive unfunded mandate.”