[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S.J. Res. 9 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. J. RES. 9

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States barring 
                Federal unfunded mandates to the States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 4, 1995

     Mr. Hatch (for himself, Mr. Brown, Mr. Abraham, Mr. Lott, Mr. 
   Kempthorne, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Thomas) introduced the 
 following joint resolution; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States barring 
                Federal unfunded mandates to the States.

    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House 
concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an 
amendment to the Constitution, which shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures 
of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the 
date of its submission to the States for ratification:

                              ``Article--

    ``Section 1. Except as provided in section 2, no obligation imposed 
by or pursuant to an Act of Congress upon a State shall be enforceable 
against such State unless the Federal Government provides the State the 
funds needed to pay the State's costs of complying with the obligation, 
and no condition imposed by or pursuant to an Act of Congress on the 
receipt of Federal assistance by a State shall be enforceable against 
the State unless the condition is directly and substantially related to 
the specific subject matter of the assistance.
    ``Section 2. Notwithstanding section 1, an Act of Congress that 
imposes an unfunded obligation upon a State, or a condition on the 
receipt of Federal assistance by a State, is not rendered unenforceable 
against the State by this article if a separate Act of Congress waiving 
the provisions of section 1 has been passed by two-thirds of the whole 
number of each House of Congress in a recorded roll call vote and has 
become a law. An Act of Congress waiving the provisions of section 1 
may waive those provisions only with respect to specifically identified 
unfunded obligations, or conditions on the receipt of Federal 
assistance, imposed by a single, specified Act of Congress and may 
contain no matter other than such waivers of provisions of section 1.
    ``Section 3. No Act of Congress shall impose on any State an 
obligation to enact or administer a Federal program.
    ``Section 4. For purposes of this article, the term `State' 
includes any subdivision or instrumentality of a State.
    ``Section 5. Section 1 of this article shall apply only to Acts of 
Congress that become effective after the date of ratification of this 
article.
    ``Section 6. The judicial remedy for violation of this article may 
include an order or ruling that an obligation or condition is not 
enforceable against a State, but shall not include an order or ruling 
that the Federal Government provide a State the funds needed to pay the 
State's costs of complying with an obligation.
    ``Section 7. Nothing in this article shall be construed as 
rendering compatible with this Constitution any exercise of Federal 
power that would, in the absence of this article, violate this 
Constitution.''.
                                 <all>