Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for his leadership on this bill and for bringing it through regular order. We continue to hear that around here on this particular bill. Mr. Chairman, before the gentleman from Massachusetts leaves, I think it is important that we address this. As the gentleman would indicate, he is making this out to be all about big banks, but it is really about the small business folks and, truly, about the municipalities. I want to read a few excerpts from the resolution that comes from his home State--from Massachusetts--because they got together, and they said this is a real problem: ``Whereas, the Federal Government has imposed additional requirements, based on incomplete scientific analysis and review, on the cities and towns of Massachusetts.'' In this resolution, Mr. Chairman, it talks about going further and that, at a minimum, what we should do is provide a ``fiscal note included as part of any such proposal.'' So it is the towns and the counties across the country and, yes, indeed, from the gentleman--my esteemed friend from Massachusetts--a resolution from his State that talks about the problems that we have with unfunded mandates. Over 850 major pieces of regulation, with impacts of over $100 million a piece, have failed this basic principle and test, and 75 percent of them never get the analysis that we should be doing at the Federal Government. We have a responsibility to the local towns and governments but also a responsibility, Mr.…”