Jennifer Dunn: “I rise in support of this wide-open rule because, Mr. Speaker, there is not any portion of the Constitution that…”

“I rise in support of this wide-open rule because, Mr. Speaker, there is not any portion of the Constitution that represents the commonsense approach that our new majority was elected to pursue more than the federalism of Article 10 of the Bill of Rights. Article 10 reads as follows: ``The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.'' H.R. 5 will restore the spirit of this amendment by restricting unfunded mandates and returning the decisionmaking power back to the local level so that they may determine which programs should be priorities for their communities. Mr. Speaker, there has been no greater violation of the spirit of the 10th amendment than through the process of imposing unfunded Federal mandates on our States or local communities. In my home State of Washington, towns with small budgets work hard just to keep their noses above water as they struggle to comply with the dictates handed down by overzealous lawmakers in Washington, DC.”