William Martini: “I rise today to revisit a topic that has been receiving a great deal of attention recently and to once again voice my…”

“I rise today to revisit a topic that has been receiving a great deal of attention recently and to once again voice my strong support for the reforms endorsed by my colleagues in the Government Reform and Oversight Committee. I refer in general to the issue of burdensome unfunded Federal mandates placed on States and localities, and specifically to H.R. 5, the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995, the bill our committee just passed and the one the House as a whole will consider this week. With the flow of Federal mandates that has flooded our local governments over the last 40 years, H.R. 5 will mark the high water point from which we will begin to bail our people out. It appears as if the Members of Congress are finally coming to the realization that they do not legislate in a vacuum. They are beginning to see that many of their 'feel good' laws and regulations actually impact local governments in very real and all too often unfortunately very negative ways. Congress did not choose to pay for these regulations. Rather, it has for years forced somebody else to pick up the tab, namely States and localities. This practice represents the height of fiscal irresponsibility and the old style of doing business that the Nation rejected in this last election. I firmly believe that it is exactly this kind of reform my constituents sent me here to address. They want Congress to be accountable to the people, and that is what I am determined to do.”