Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, some years ago a serial killer whose name I forget, there are so many these days, left a scribbled note at the scene of one of his murders which said, ``Stop me before I kill again.'' In effect, he was saying, ``I know what I am doing is wrong, but I am powerless to stop doing it.'' Mr. Chairman, so it is with unfunded mandates. Most of us in this House know what we are doing is wrong, that we are putting an increasingly intolerable burden on States and local governments in the private sector, but we seem incapable of stopping it. H.R. 5 is our way of saying, ``Stop us before we mandate again.'' In fact, this bill will not actually stop us from imposing additional unfunded mandates, but it will certainly slow the process, and will force each of us to go on record if we want to mandate action by State and local governments without providing the resources with which to pay for it. It does not go nearly as far as some of us would like. No money, no mandate, would be our preference, but H.R. 5 is a reasonable compromise between divergent views, and one which has the support of the President and bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.”