Rob Portman: “I think the logical extension of this amendment would then be to say to the counties, for example, that the counties…”

“I think the logical extension of this amendment would then be to say to the counties, for example, that the counties cannot, under Federal law, pass along any mandate to the townships, as an example, and so forth. I think this gets into an area that is well beyond the scope of the legislation in the sense it is the Federal Government, Congress, mandating what the States do and mandating what the counties do and mandating what the townships do and so on. I would also say the gentlewoman's amendment would go well beyond this legislation, perhaps beyond at least the way it was described by the sponsor of the legislation, by the sponsor of the amendment, in the sense it prohibits, as I read it, any mandate being imposed on a State. It is a flat prohibition. As will be discussed later at length in this legislation, this legislation is not a flat ban on all mandates. This legislation sets up a process and provides for a thoughtful debate and then accountability and a majority vote on a waiver of a point of order on a mandate. In other words, there is discussion and informed debate. That is the purpose of the legislation. Again, I think this amendment in the purposes clause would be misleading at the least, probably more so it would be inconsistent with the rest of the legislation as I read it.”