Political Quotes

“in 1992-1993, I introduced unfunded mandates legislation. This was during the time when the Democratic Party was in the majority. I could not get it out of the Government Operations Committee. My friend and colleague from California, I am sure, recalls that he also had unfunded mandates legislation which suffered the same fate. Then when the Republican majority took over the Congress, it, of course, became the first legislation to be enacted. At that time, when that bill was debated, I had an amendment. That amendment was designed to correct an oversight which was that it did not include private sector mandates. It only applied to public sector mandates. It did not get included because the House leadership did not give its stamp of approval at that time, and it was not part of the Republican contract on America. So it did not get the votes necessary for adoption. The legislation that we are considering today does just what that amendment was designed to do. It is the same amendment. That is why I support this rule and this bill because it does correct something that was left unfinished when we passed the original unfunded mandates legislation.”