[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 12 (Friday, January 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S1259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           UNFUNDED MANDATES

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the debate we are engaged in, and have been 
for 8 days now, is important not only because the American people are 
tired of the Federal Government telling them what to do--and, in the 
case of State and local governments and tribal governments, having the 
additional burden of then having to pay for those Federal mandates. It 
is important, therefore, not only because the unfunded mandates 
legislation would put a stop to that in the future and say that from 
now on the Federal Government is going to have to identify the cost of 
mandates on the private sector and is going to have to pay for the 
mandates it imposes on the public sector--it is important not only for 
that reason, but it is also important because when we pass the balanced 
budget amendment and send that to the States for their ratification, 
the State legislatures and the Governors are going to be considering 
whether or not to ratify that amendment. One of the concerns that they 
are going to have is that the Federal Government might attempt to 
achieve its requirement of meeting a balanced budget by simply foisting 
the costs onto the State and local governments and tribal governments.
  I would add as a footnote that in my State of Arizona the business of 
tribal governments is significant, and they have to bear the burden of 
some of these mandates. So they are all concerned about this.
  In the case of the people in the State legislature, they suggested to 
me that if we want the balanced budget amendment to be ratified by the 
State legislatures, we had better make it very clear that the Federal 
Government is not going to attempt to achieve that balance by laying 
all of these mandates on State and local governments. We might have 
done that in the case of the health care legislation that, I think 
fortunately, was killed last year. One of my friends back in Arizona 
called it ``justifiable homicide.'' I am delighted we did not pass the 
kind of bill that was originally proposed because it would have created 
a huge mandate on the private sector. In fact, it was called employer 
mandates. And employers would have been required to pay substantial 
amounts of money. In some cases I believe there were situations where 
they really could not afford it, which is the reason they do not 
provide that health care today. So both for the public and private 
sectors it is important that the Government not impose these mandates. 
But as I said, it is important not only in its own right but because of 
the connection to the balanced budget amount.


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