Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about our Constitution's Federalist structure and the real danger of the Federal Government unduly interfering with the ability of States and localities to address activities and concerns in their communities. Everyone agrees that violence against women is reprehensible. The Violence Against Women Act reauthorization had the honorable goal of assisting victims of domestic violence, but it oversteps the Constitution's rightful limits on Federal power. It interferes with the flexibility of States and localities that they should have in tailoring programs to meet particular needs of individual communities, and it fails to address problems of duplication and inefficiency. First, violent crimes are regulated and enforced almost exclusively by State governments. In fact, domestic violence is one of the few activities that the Supreme Court of the United States has specifically said Congress may not regulate under the commerce clause. As a matter of constitutional policy, Congress should not seek to impose rules and standards as conditions for Federal funding in areas where the Federal Government lacks constitutional authority to regulate directly. Second, the strings Congress attaches to Federal funding in the VAWA reauthorization restrict each State's ability to govern itself.…”