[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 11 (Thursday, January 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PASS UNFUNDED MANDATES LEGISLATION

  (Mr. EVERETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks, and include extraneous 
material.)
  Mr. EVERETT. Mr. Speaker, a headline in today's Washington Post reads 
``Unfunded Mandates Top Cities' List of Problems.'' It sites a study by 
the National League of Cities that finds unfunded mandates is the issue 
local governments find most vexing.
  It's time for Congress to put an end to this practice of trying to 
balance our books on the backs of State and local governments. If the 
Federal Government cannot pay for it, we will not force the costs on 
the States.

                              {time}  1050

  That is what our unfunded mandate legislation will accomplish. 
Republicans want to change the culture of Washington through unfunded 
mandates legislation and a balanced budget amendment.
  We want a Government that works for the people, not against the 
people.
  I urge my colleagues to supported unfunded mandates legislation. The 
time has come to change the culture of Washington.
  The article to which I referred is as follows:

Unfunded Mandates Top Cities' List of Problems--Officals Surveyed Also 
                          Cite Crime, Violence

                          (By John M. Goshko)

       Halting increases in crime and violence, curbing costly 
     federal requirements and creating more jobs are the biggest 
     problems facing American towns and cities, according to the 
     National League of Cities' annual survey of the issues 
     preoccupying municipal officials.
       The NLC, a bipartisan organization that represents state 
     municipal leagues with a combined membership of 16,000 
     cities, based its findings on responses from 382 elected 
     officials drawn from cities of 10,000 people or more. The 
     findings of the survey, conducted before the November 
     elections, closely paralleled many of the concerns that 
     dominated campaigns and led to Republican control of 
     Congress.
       The survey found that unfunded mandates--laws or 
     regulations imposed on cities without funding from federal or 
     state governments--is the issue local governments find most 
     vexing. The adverse impact of these mandates on cities with 
     shrinking municipal financial resources was cited by 74.2 
     percent of respondents as a steadily worsening situation that 
     Congress must address urgently.
       Also of great concern to municipal officials is a panoply 
     of public safety issues: youth crime (63.4 percent), school 
     violence (52 percent), gangs (51.3 percent), drugs (48.4 
     percent) and violent crime (40.8 percent).
       In proposing ways to deal with crime, respondents broke 
     sharply with the tough measures proposed by House Speaker 
     Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in his ``Contract With America.'' In 
     accordance with GOP campaign promises, Congress is preparing 
     to consider substantial revision of the omnibus crime bill, 
     passed under President Clinton's sponsorship last summer, to 
     divert funds from crime-prevention programs to prison 
     construction.
       The NLC survey asked respondents to measure the potential 
     effectiveness of 20 different approaches to reducing crime. 
     They expressed the least confidence in get-tough ideas such 
     as more death penalties (8.1 percent), more prisons (8.4 
     percent), elimination of parole (9.9 percent) and stricter 
     gun control (11.8 percent).
       By contrast, 63.6 percent of respondents declared 
     themselves in favor of strengthening family stability as the 
     most effective deterrent to crime. They also gave high marks 
     to job creation, after-school and recreational programs and 
     early-childhood education such as Head Start as approaches to 
     fighting crime.
       ``Municipal officials believe that last year's crime bill 
     struck the right balance,'' said Donald J. Borut, NLC 
     executive director. ``There is serious concern about the 
     current efforts at revision under consideration in Congress. 
     Last summer's bill has been in effect barely four months, and 
     we believe it should be given a chance before attempts are 
     made to tamper with it.''
       Both Borut and Carolyn Long Banks, NLC president and an 
     Atlanta city council member, stressed that the greatest 
     concern in city governments is unfunded mandates. They 
     praised Sen. Dirk Kempthorne (R-Idaho) for taking the lead on 
     legislation that would curb Washington's power to impose 
     mandates without funding them.
       Banks noted that unfunded mandates take up almost 15 
     percent of Altanta's annual budget. She added that her city 
     is being fined $9,000 a day for failing to comply with a 
     federal law requiring construction of a system to handle 
     storm and water runoff. It hasn't been done, she said, 
     because the city doesn't have the money to meet federal 
     specifications and because many residents don't want the 
     requisite construction in their neighborhoods.

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