Bruce F. Vento: “Mr. Chairman, this is a relatively straightforward amendment. It applies to life-threatening public health and safety…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is a relatively straightforward amendment. It applies to life-threatening public health and safety matters. I am certain that the Members of the House can enumerate many examples of life-threatening health and safety actions and laws that we might be called upon to consider in this House. Second, of course, while the proponents of this bill have argued that this is entirely prospective, they are not looking at the entirety of the legislation they have before them because indeed on page 16 through page 22 it requires any new rules that are put out that come within the scope of the language. The point I am trying to make is that it is not just a matter of information on unfunded mandates. Much like the CBO process that we would go through today, I think there would be much less controversy and, in fact, I think I would laud the fact of having more information before the House on measures that we are considering. Indeed, I think that very often we are subjected or are left with subjective information concerning unfunded mandates, much as we are with other issues about the impacts of legislation. Unfortunately, we have no track record to guide us with regards to what the nature of the quality of that information will be on unfunded mandates. But this bill reaches far further than most bills we have considered.”