Lincoln Chafee: “let me comment very briefly on the Sense-of-the-Senate resolution offered by Senator Bradley and me. The resolution is…”

“let me comment very briefly on the Sense-of-the-Senate resolution offered by Senator Bradley and me. The resolution is, of course, not binding to the States. The last thing we want to do is attach a mandate to an unfunded mandates reform bill. Instead, we say plainly here that the States should given full consideration to mandates they might pass onto their cities and towns. That is all. I mentioned last week on the floor how ironic it is that Governors have asked us to provide relief in this area--while they themselves frequently impose unfunded mandates on their counties, cities, and towns. As we know, cities and towns have no one to pass costs down to. S. 1 introduces a clear mechanism for accountability at the Federal level. It would be inappropriate and unconstitutional for the Congress to install these same restrictions at the State level--yet--the theme underlying S. 1 of increased accountability for mandates seems applicable. Although my plan is to support S. 1, I have concerns about the lack of information in certain areas. for instance, do we know how many of the mandates imposed upon cities and towns actually originate from the Federal Government? To my knowledge, there is no data base or tracking system to make this important distinction. However, we have clear evidence that State-issued unfunded mandates exist.”