Doc Hastings: “I think, emphatically, yes, we should consider this bill; and accordingly, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this…”

“I think, emphatically, yes, we should consider this bill; and accordingly, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this motion. The basis of the argument of my friend, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons), is that this is an unfunded mandate. I would like to read to my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, a letter to Senator Frank Murkowski who is the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The letter is dated June 24, 1999 from Director Dan Crippen of the Congressional Budget Office and he writes specifically on the question of unfunded mandates, and I quote: ``CBO is unsure whether the bill contains intergovernmental mandates as defined by the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act, but we estimated that costs incurred by State, local and tribal governments as a result of the bill would total significantly less,'' and I want to emphasize this point, ``significantly less than the threshold established in the law, which is $50 million adjusted annually for inflation.”