Jon L. Christensen: “over the last 40 years, the Congress has perfected a new dance--the 10th amendment shuffle. The music for this dance…”

“over the last 40 years, the Congress has perfected a new dance--the 10th amendment shuffle. The music for this dance starts playing when the Congress runs out of Federal tax dollars to spend, but still has several key projects on their wish list. Rather than sitting out a dance, Congress has instead sidestepped the 10th amendment and forces States and localities to pay for its projects and dance to its tune. A classic shuffle is the motor-voter bill, an unfunded mandate estimated to cost States some $58 million. Mr. Speaker, it will cost my State, Nebraska, over $700,000 to recruit more people to get registered on the voting files in a State which already has one of the highest voter registration rates in the Nation. It is time to pull Congress' dance cards and put an end to Federal unfunded mandates. H.R. 5 will do this. I urge my colleagues to support this and make sure we no longer have to live under the unfunded mandates that the Congress continues to send.”