Political Quotes

“That reauthorizes appropriations for carrying out, or that amends, any statute if enactment of the bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report-- ``(1) would not result in a net increase in the aggregate amount of direct costs of Federal intergovernmental mandates; and ``(2)(A) would not result in a net reduction or elimination of authorizations of appropriations for Federal financial assistance that would be provided to States, local governments, or tribal governments for use to comply with any Federal intergovernmental mandate; or ``(B) in the case of any net reduction or elimination of authorizations of appropriations for such Federal financial assistance that would result from such enactment, would reduce the duties imposed by the Federal intergovernment mandate by a corresponding amount. I think our intent here was clearly to make it as crystal clear as we can that we are not intending in this way to abrogate or undercut existing mandates in the legislation whether or not it was reauthorized or not.”