Political Quotes

“if I may, in the midst of this interesting debate, I would like to return the focus of the debate to S. 1 itself; to unfunded mandates, to the impact that those mandates have had on State and on local governments, and to the urgent necessity of seeing to it that this bill is passed and it becomes law. I have gotten a great deal of correspondence from local governments and the State of Washington on the subject of unfunded mandates. But I would like to start with one the focus of which is a little bit different than many of the particular complaints about unfunded mandates. The mayor of the city of Kennewick wrote to me and said: Congress needs to understand the long range impacts of its actions when it passes amendments [to legislation]. I agree. But I am inclined to think that the mayor of Kennewick could have gone considerably further. And I also reflect on why it is that a mayor of a city some 2,500 miles from here should have to say this to us. Of course, the Congress of the United States should have to understand the long-range impacts of the laws that it passes. That is a responsibility we ought to take on ourselves, not one we should have to be reminded of by mayors or Governors or county commissioners. Yet it has been my experience that very frequently we attempt to avoid understanding long-range impacts in passing feel-good legislation, sometimes legislation for valid social purposes but social purposes which we are unwilling to fund.”